Kids' hockey coach tests positive for COVID-19 in Moncton area

A member of the coaching staff of a children's hockey team in theMonctonarea tested positive for COVID-19 on Wednesday, according to Nic Jansen, executive director of Hockey New Brunswick.

The affected team is from the Under 13 league.

Jansen said each coach and player on the team is isolating for 14 days.

"The team and the association have been working with Public Health just to identify next steps," said Jansen.

This includes "awaiting further information on opposing teams that played against this team in the past two weeks."

Jansen said he couldn't divulge the name of the person who tested positive or say which team this person coached for.

He said he found out Wednesday about the positive test, which hebelieves was done on Wednesday as well.

But Jansen said he doesn't know when this person contracted therespiratory disease.

"I guess that's the difficult part with COVID,is it's hard to know when he was considered positive," said Jansen.

Later Thursday, the Saint John Sea Dogs also announced a staff membertested positive for COVID-19, resulting in five games being postponed.

People who came into contact with the infected person will be tested.

Dr. Jennifer Russell said contact tracing is done within 24 hours of a positive test.

At a provincial news conference on Thursday, Premier Blaine Higgsannounced that Zone 1, the Moncton region, was being moved back to the orange level phase of the recovery plan as of midnight Thursday night.

But there afew changes made to the orange regulations with regard to sports.

"Sports teams must limit their activities to practise within a certain team," said Higgs.

Until now,no organized sports were allowed in orange phase restrictions.