New Brunswick Public Health is responding to the presence of the COVID-19 Omicron variant with a number of changes to its Level 2 Winter coronavirus plan effective Tuesday, January 4, 2022 at 11:59pm.
Among the changes are: reserving PCR tests for only the highest risk and symptomatic cases (asking all others to rely on home rapid testing); adjusting the isolation periods for positive cases in order to prevent staff shortages with regards to critical infrastructure (incl. health-care, power and law enforcement, among others); and return-to-school is cancelled on January 10th with the public school system moving to online learning from Jan. 11-21.
All of the specifics can be found at this link:
https://www2.gnb.ca/content/gnb/en/news/news_release.2021.12.0944.html
Meantime, the number of new cases of COVID-19 in New Brunswick reported on New Year’s Eve was 682 against 190 recoveries. Forty-five are hospitalized, including 21 in intensive care.