N.L. reports 349 new COVID-19 cases, breaking another daily record
CBC
Newfoundland and Labrador is reporting 349 new cases of COVID-19 on Thursday, gaining more cases in a single day than it accumulated in total during the first eight months of the pandemic.
Most of the cases, 199, are located in the Eastern Health region, along with 53 cases in the Central Health region, 22 in the Western Health region and 66 new cases in the Labrador-Grenfell region.
There are also nine new cases as a result of testing completed by a private lab outside of a regional health authority. Those cases do not fit in the breakdown of cases by health region.
The sources of all cases are under investigation.
The new cases, offset by 32 announced recoveries, bring the number of active cases in the province to 1,428 — an all-time high since the pandemic began in March 2020.
There are 975 cases in the Eastern Health region, 174 in the Central Health region, 163 in the Western Health, 105 in the Labrador-Grenfell region and 11 cases for which the region is unknown.
The new numbers set another record for highest single-day case increase in the province, fuelled by the highly transmissible Omicron variant. Chief Medical Officer of Health Dr. Janice Fitzgerald said Wednesday the majority of recently reported cases are Omicron cases.
One person is currently in hospital due to COVID-19. A total of 3,441 tests have been completed in the last 24 hours, bringing the number of completed tests in the province to 388,900.
Vaccination against COVID-19 continues in the province, with over 92 per cent of the eligible population now deemed fully vaccinated. Over 95 per cent of the eligible population has received at least one dose of COVID-19 vaccine, including over 65 per cent of eligible children aged five to 11.
During Wednesday's COVID-19 briefing, Health Minister John Haggie said the Health Department was ushering in the additional restrictions for the next two weeks across all regions.
"You can recall back in March of 2020 we took prompt action to protect those most vulnerable citizens," Haggie said.
"It is unfortunate we have to do this at the holiday season, but our prime concern has to be the safety of residents within these facilities."
Haggie said the restrictions will be reevaluated in two weeks.
In a media release on Thursday, Eastern Health said effective immediately, all in-person visits to inpatients in hospitals and residents of long-term care homes, personal care homes, community care homes and assisted living facilities are shut down until further notice.
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