Health officials announced a second “presumptive” case of COVID-19 in New Brunswick on Saturday.
Dr. Jennifer Russell, the province’s chief medical officer of health, said the patient is a man between 50 and 60 years old living in southeastern New Brunswick.
Russell said the man is a “close connection” to the province’s first confirmed case announced earlier this week.
“This individual is already isolated and Public Health officials have already taken swift action to implement immediate precautions to prevent the infection from spreading,” she said.
Russell declined to say exactly where the person lives or how they know the first individual, citing privacy concerns.
All tests in New Brunswick are sent to the Dr. Georges-L.-Dumont University Hospital Centre’s laboratory in Moncton for presumptive testing, she said. The test is then sent to the National Microbiology Lab in Winnipeg to confirm the case as a positive.
Russell said it was not unexpected to see a second presumptive case of COVID-19 in the province.
“The pattern that we’re seeing across Canada with travel-related cases is that we expect to see small clusters of close contacts in those particular situations.”
Russell says the risk to the general public remains low and may only affect those who have been in close contact with either case.
She said they have introduced phone and digital resources for health-care providers to conduct virtual care visits and consultations with those who have or may have the virus.
Health authorities also recommend Canadians cancel or postpone any non-essential travel outside of the country to help prevent the spread of the virus.
With files from Christina Mulherin.
