Dr. Mark MacMillan is calling on the province to use penalties, such as restricted hours, reduced access, or banning people who are unvaccinated from big-box stores, such as Costco and Walmart, to encourage compliance.

But he stops short at proposing mandatory vaccinations or following the lead of Quebec and imposing a health tax on the unvaccinated.

"Health care is universal across this country, it is a right for every individual to access health care, and I want to stress that right now, that no matter what your vaccine status is in this province, if you need the health-care system, we will provide the care that we can at that time to our best effort," he said.

"It looks different now than it did two and a half years ago, for sure because of the pandemic. But we are still providing health care and we will continue to do that."

More than eight per cent of eligible New Brunswickers have still not received any vaccine, as COVID hospitalizations and case numbers continue to soar because of the Omicron variant.

In a statement, Premier Blain Higgs said he is "pleased the New Brunswick Medical Society supports the idea of taking action to encourage vaccination," and respects its advocacy for its members and for all health-care providers.

"If any changes will be made, they'll be made through Cabinet and COVID Cabinet Committee," he said.

Last week, Higgs told CBC News the province may revisit the issue of mandatory COVID-19 vaccines.

Public patience is "wearing a little thin" toward the unvaccinated, he said. "They don't see why they have to have restrictions when they … have gone … the extra mile and got vaccinated."

New Brunswick may also follow Quebec's lead on asking for proof of COVID-19 vaccination at liquor and cannabis stores, he has said, nothing everything is "on the table" as the province seeks ways to make life "increasingly uncomfortable" for people who choose not to be vaccinated.

Higgs has asked various departments for suggestions regarding where restrictions can be tightened for the unvaccinated.

MacMilan said the province should look at the data from other jurisdictions to see what has worked in increasing vaccination rates.

"Mr. Higgs has said everything's on the table," he said. "We're suggesting everything should stay on the table and have that discussion moving forward."

"Some people when — no matter what education you provide, what discussion you have —  some people will decide in the end that vaccination just is not for them. And that's why we speak on herd immunity. We won't probably ever get 100 per cent, and that's OK.

"But if we can get to a high enough number, where the general population is safe and we're moving forward and our health-care system can recover, that's important."

4 COVID-related deaths, record-high 123 hospitalizations

Public Health reported four more COVID-related deaths Wednesday, marking 22 in seven days, and a record-high of 123 COVID hospitalizations, including four people 19 or under.

Eleven people are in intensive care, six of them are on ventilators.

Sixty-seven of the people hospitalized with COVID were admitted for other reasons when they tested positive.

A total of 342 health-care workers who have tested positive are off, isolating.

There were 498 new COVID cases confirmed through PCR (polymerase chain reaction) testing, putting the active caseload at 4,296. That figure doesn't include people testing positive on rapid tests.

An additional 805 people tested positive on rapid tests and registered their results online.

As of Wednesday, 33.7 per cent of eligible New Brunswickers have received a booster dose, 83.5 per cent have received two doses, and 91.3 per cent have received one dose.

A total of 662,339 PCR tests have been conducted to date, including 3,134 on Tuesday. That's a positivity rate of 15.9 per cent.

New Brunswick has had 24,001 PCR-confirmed cases of COVID-19 since the beginning of the pandemic, with 19,507 recoveries so far and 196 deaths.