What happened in New Brunswick last week is an example of the whiplash the entire country may be fated to suffer, the fragility of our successes at ending the pandemic
As New Brunswickers have now learned, it only takes one person – in this case, a doctor who travelled to Quebec and instead of self-isolating continued treating patients, Ms. Isaac included, for two weeks in the emergency department at the Campellton Regional Hospital. As of Sunday, there were 12 confirmed cases in the region, including a second doctor at the hospital, and five people connected to Manoir de la Vallée, a facility with 51 residents, in the nearby village of Atholville.
Campbellton is one of the first and most stark cases of the COVID-19 suppression strategy that has come to be known as the hammer and the dance. Until last week, there had been only a dozen cases in Campbellton, according to the city’s mayor, all but one related to travel outside the province and none of them requiring hospitalizations. The entire province had gone days without an active case.
After months of the hammer – a lockdown at home, shuttered businesses and a controlled border – New Brunswick was slowly choreographing braver steps of the dance. Gatherings of up to 10 people allowed families and friends to see each other after weeks apart, and more businesses, such as barber shops, were permitted to open.
Now, mere days later, the hammer has fallen again – at least until testing shows how far the virus has spread. The Campbellton hospital has been forced to close its emergency department and postpone elective surgeries. The government has also delayed provincewide plans to permit more reopenings of places such as bowling alleys, pools and small churches.
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