On May 22 the president of the Campbellton Regional Hospital in northern New Brunswick praised the “efforts and sacrifices” allowing the 163-bed facility to start lifting COVID-19 restrictions. Elective surgery and medical imaging were restarting, Gilles Lanteigne announced, adding: “Despite boasting the lowest contagion rate in the country, we must avoid letting our guard down.”
Last week, however, a COVID-19 outbreak shut the hospital’s emergency department, with ambulances diverted to a facility an hour away. The region is now the only one in the province pushed back into orange alert on the province’s recovery scale — with patient zero being a doctor at Lanteigne’s hospital, who returned from a personal visit to Quebec and failed to self-isolate, officials said.
Since the doctor’s return to the city of 6,500, and to him seeing patients, an outbreak of 12 active cases has been reported, including four new cases over the weekend, linked to the doctor. Among them is a fellow health-care worker at a long term care home.
We’re all paying the price now
The doctor, whose name has not been released, has been suspended and the RCMP is investigating to see if anything in his conduct was criminal.
Meanwhile, a new wave of quarantine and testing has begun in Campbellton, including medical colleagues, as health officials say he was in contact with more than 100 people.
And people are angry.
“He should have known better,” said Gilbert Cyr, a veteran city councilor. “It’s like a wolf in sheep’s clothing… coming from a source you would never expected it to come from.
“It’s a hard pill to swallow. People have worked so hard to get to the place we were, with no cases and enjoying some relaxed freedom. We had businesses that had just reopened — some just for one day — and then told to shut down again because of this when the rest of the province is opening up.
“We’re all paying the price now.”
On social media, bitterness and anger is tenfold fiercer and pitchfork sharp. Calls for the doctor’s job, and worse, and to “lock him up” are not uncommon. People say he has fled the community, fearing for his safety. The RCMP did not respond to questions about concerns for his safety, late Monday.
“I think people expected there to be some flare ups but nothing certainly from where it came from. That was the most concerning element of all — people, where they would normally go to be safe, is where they ended up being in the worst spot,” said Cyr.
Until this outbreak, New Brunswick was rolling back restrictions ahead of the rest of Canada. There had been no new cases for more than two weeks and no COVID deaths have been registered in the province. It was hailed as a model for COVID response.
Premier Blaine Higgs at first criticized the doctor as “irresponsible,” but then softened his tone, sensing the spiraling public mood.
“I know people are upset, but we don’t want anyone taking matters into their own hands,” Higgs said Friday.
Similarly, Dr. Jennifer Russell, the province’s chief medical officer of health, asked people to not focus on who spread the virus.
“I know that people want to blame others, but really the blame is the virus. It’s not the people, it’s the virus,” she said Sunday.
The problem for New Brunswick, as everywhere, is the virus is hard to contain when left unchecked, as it had been in Campbellton.
Russell warns of possible spread beyond the region.
“We’re going to be watching very, very carefully what is happening in that region and also around the province, because we know that people have left that region since the time that there has been a transmission of COVID-19.
“Every corner of the province needs to be vigilant.”
To try to corral the outbreak, there was record high testing starting Friday. No new cases were reported in New Brunswick Monday.
“Just over 5,000 citizens attended the mass screening clinics held on May 29, 30 and 31 in Campbellton and Dalhousie,” Jean-René Noël, spokesman for the hospital, said an email. “This is an unprecedented success.”
Where they would normally go to be safe, is where they ended up being in the worst spot
He did not answer questions about the situation with the doctor.
For now, the RCMP said there is little that can be said about their role in the matter.
“We are aware of the incident of a particular individual travelling outside the province and coming back in and that’s what’s been referred to us,” said Corp. Jullie Rogers-Marsh, a spokeswoman with New Brunswick RCMP. “We are looking into the matter, we’re trying to determine exactly what happened and if it’s something that is criminal.”
Cyr wonders if there is more than just an error in judgment not to self-isolate after the doctor’s trip.
“Here, everywhere you go, even to the liquor store, they ask you a pile of questions, whether you’ve been out of the province in 14 days, travelled abroad. The hospital does the same thing. He would have been presented with those questions at work,” he said.
He just hopes the situation can, at least, become a teachable moment.
“People need to realize, this is no joke. It can happen anywhere.”
With files from Canadian Press
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