New Brunswick’s first death from COVID-19 was announced Thursday morning after an outbreak that began with a doctor returning to work without self-isolating after travel.
The family of Daniel Ouellette, who was a resident at the Manoir de la Vallée care home in Atholville, N.B., announced his death on social media . He was 85.
“In these difficult times it is with a very very heavy heart that I announce the passing of our father Daniel (Ti-Dan) Ouellette. He lost his fight against the COVID-19 virus this morning at 5:10 am. He will be missed greatly by all of us,” Michel Ouellette said.
The deadly virus was found at the Manoir de la Vallée home after a staff member tested positive. The health worker had, in turn, been in contact with a doctor at the local hospital who tested positive.
The doctor had traveled to Quebec, did not isolate afterwards, and returned to work. He worked at the Campbellton Regional Hospital, a 163-bed facility in Campbellton. The area in northern New Brunswick borders Quebec across the Restigouche River.
The hospital’s emergency department has since shut down and ambulances have been diverted to a facility an hour away as staff quarantine and are tested.
In response to the outbreak, restrictions have reverted back to the more severe level of “orange” alert on the province’s recovery scale.
All 16 of the active cases are in Campbellton region, designated as Zone 5 in the provincial response plan. Five patients were hospitalized with one in an intensive care unit.
On Wednesday, the province had announced two new cases, both of them in the Campbellton region.
One of the new cases is linked to the same care home and the other to a close contact of a previously identified case. A third case, connected to the Campbellton outbreak, was identified in a Quebec resident who is also linked to Manoir de la Vallée, but this case will be counted in Quebec’s pandemic tally.
The doctor involved told French-language CBC this week that he went quickly into Quebec to pick up his young daughter because the child’s mother needed to go to a funeral. He said he was surprised he caught the virus because he didn’t stop along the way.
He said it was “perhaps an error in judgment.”
The doctor, Jean Robert Ngola, spoke out because he has been subjected to racist abuse and angry mobbing on social media. The New Brunswick Medical Society understands the public’s anger but said racist commentary cannot be tolerated.
Wednesday’s provincial COVID-19 caseload, the most recent available from the province, was 136 cases, with 120 recovered.
Dr. Jennifer Russell, chief medical officer of health for the province, said Thursday of the first recorded death: “That unfortunate day has arrived. It is a very sad day for all New Brunswickers.”
She said more than 300 people are self-isolating as a result of the contact tracing for the positive cases, and almost all are within Health Zone 5.
With the current hot zone around Campbellton pushed back to the “orange” level, the next step of the “yellow” phase for the remainder of the province has been delayed until Friday.
“We are grieving today, but also moving forward,” Russell said.
Premier Blaine Higgs said that starting Friday, outside of Zone 5, indoor gatherings in homes of up to 10 people are allowed. Outdoor gatherings of up to 50 are allowed, with physical distancing
— with files from The Canadian Press
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