New Brunswick COVID-19 death toll jumps by 86 after data review

Eighty-six more New Brunswickers have died fromCOVID-19 than previously reported, the Department of Health announced Friday.

The department also announced changes to how the province defines vaccination status, andto the weekly COVIDWatch report.

The revised death countis part of a data "reconciliation exercise"announced earlier this year to ensure deaths are attributed to the virus if there is "a clinical indication that it was either the primary cause or directly contributed to the death," according to a news release.

The additional deaths occurred between Sept. 4 and Nov. 27, according to an updated online chart that shows all of the province'sCOVID deaths by date.

The province's pandemic death toll is now714.

"This is a strong indication that the new process functions as intended and is allowing us to capture records that would have been otherwise missed," Dr. Yves Lger, acting chief medical officer of health, said in a statement.

In October, the COVID death reviewfound 125 more deaths between March 1, 2020, and May 31, 2022, should be attributed to COVID-19, while 46 should be removed from the province's total, a net increase of 79.

Starting Tuesday, an updated COVIDWatchreport will be introduced to better reflect deaths by presenting them based upon the date of death, according to Friday's news release.

The seven-day moving average of COVID-19 deaths, death rates by age group, death rates by vaccination status, and age-adjusted rates will also be included.

"The changes are designed to reflect a format that several other provinces are using and is better aligned with other standard epidemiological reports," the release says.

Vaccination status changes

Public Health will also be changing its COVID-19 vaccination status categories to: unvaccinated, completed primary series, which is two doses,completed the primary series and one additional dose, and completed the primary series and two or more additional doses.

The province has been reviewing how it defines vaccination status for months.Until now, it hasdefined "protected" as being boosted or fully vaccinated within the last six months, while "unprotected" refers to being fully vaccinated for more than six months, being partially vaccinated or being unvaccinated.

This means people who have hadtwo vaccinesand a booster dose more than six months ago are lumpedin with those who haven't had a single shot.

For months,New Brunswick's rates of hospitalizationand death from COVID-19 have beenhigher forthose "protected" from the virusthanthose "unprotected," according to the province'sweekly COVIDWatch reports.

As of Tuesday, COVID-19 data dating back to Aug. 28, 2022 "the start of the current respiratory virus season" will be includedin the new template, the Department of Health said. It will reset after one full year.

This does not mean older reports will no longer be available, department spokesperson Adam Bowie told CBC. Theywill be archived in a manner similar to FluWatch reports, he said in an email.

Self-reported rapid test results will no longer be included in the report because they are "aninaccurate indicator of how many people may be positive," the release said.

"However, the information is still an indicator of virus spread and potential impact," so that data will still be available on theCOVIDWatchlanding pageeach week.

Because of the upcoming holidays, following Tuesday's COVIDWatch report, the nextCOVIDWatch report will be posted on Wednesday, Jan. 4, and will include two weeks' worth of data, the department advised.