New Brunswick officials announced 20 new cases of COVID-19 Saturday, bringing the province to 57 active cases.
The new cases include 12 in the Moncton region (Zone 1), seven cases in the Campbellton region (Zone 5) and one case in the Fredericton region (Zone 3).
Three people are in hospital. One is in intensive care.
Dr. Jennifer Russell, the province’s chief medical officer, said nine of these cases are related to the outbreak at the Manoir Notre-Dame in Moncton.
“This is not the start of the holiday weekend that any of us were hoping for,” she said.
Single-day high for New Brunswick
The 20 new cases is a single-day high for the province since the start of the pandemic, surpassing 15 new cases on Wednesday.
The new Moncton region cases are an individual between 20 and 29, two people between 60 and 69, two people between 70 and 79, four people between 80 and 89 and three people over 90.
Three of those cases remain under investigation while the others are linked to the special care home.
In the Campbellton region, the new cases announced are an individual under 19, an individual between 20 and 29, an individual between 30 and 39, an individual between 50 and 59, two people between 60 and 69 and an individual between 70 and 79. Those cases are connected to a regional outbreak and remain under investigation.
The new case in the Fredericton area is an individual between 50 and 59 and related to travel outside of the Atlantic bubble.
Public Health says all the new cases are self-isolating.
Case at Dalhousie elementary school
Education Minister Dominic Cardy said a second case in a New Brunswick school since the start of the pandemic has been confirmed. That case is at Académie Notre-Dame, an elementary school in Dalhousie, which remains open under strict guidance from Public Health.
The first case in a school was confirmed on Thursday at Sugarloaf High School in Campbellton. That school will be closed on Tuesday and Wednesday as part of a prior decision to help students adapt to online learning.
Cardy said mask use will now be required — both indoors and outdoors — for all students in grades K-12 at schools in Campbellton and Moncton health regions.
Exceptions will be made for physical education, and while students are eating or working alone quietly at their desk. Those with medical reasons will also be exempt.
All school sports and extracurricular activities are now cancelled.
“This is a time which I think we all hoped would not reach us here in New Brunswick, after a long summer where we had a respite from a disease that’s ravaging the world,” Cardy said.
He would not say how many people at the two schools are self-isolating, citing privacy reasons.
