Down to zero: After 10 cases this weekend, N.L. returns to no new cases of COVID-19
Mike Moore | CBC News | Posted: December 21, 2020 1:58 PM | Last Updated: December 21, 2020
Active caseload dips to 28
Newfoundland and Labrador is reporting no new cases of COVID-19 on Monday, a day after reporting 10 over the weekend.
The province's active caseload has also dipped to 28, as Chief Medical Officer of Health Dr. Janice Fitzgerald announced new recoveries, bringing the total since March to 347.
During Monday's COVID-19 briefing, Fitzgerald disclosed long-awaited news out of Harbour Breton, a community of 1,600 which up to this point contained three cases of an unknown source in recent weeks.
Fitzgerald said the public health investigation is finished and has determined that the small cluster was related to travel.
"This is a relief in many ways, and the public health team in Central Health deserves huge kudos for their diligence in tracing back until they found the source," Fitzgerald said.
"Thank you to the residents of Harbour Breton who came forward for testing, and over 1,000 people had, and followed public health guidance to keep their community safe. If we do not see any further cases related to this cluster by Dec. 24 then public health will declare the outbreak over."
Premier Andrew Furey also announced Monday's briefing will be the last scheduled live update for the year. Briefings will resume in the first week of January. Regular updates will be issued through media releases by the Department of Health, but Furey said in significant circumstances that he, Fitzgerald, and Health Minister John Haggie will make themselves available for an update.
"This holiday season could make or break us, and we need everyone working together as we have to control the spread of COVID-19 in our communities," he said.
"My message would be to just keep doing what we're doing, and we will get through this as more vaccines roll out. We will come out the other side."
Watch the full Dec. 21 update:
In total 70,502 people have been tested as of Monday's update, an increase of 322 since Sunday.
Vaccination rollout continued over the weekend. Haggie said 972 vaccines were administered up until the end of Saturday.
Looking ahead, Haggie said the current vaccine run marks a test for the "delivery mechanism."
"As the new year comes I think [it] will then allow us to get this vaccine, and the ones that will follow it, out into the arms of Newfoundlanders and Labradorians, starting with our most vulnerable and most at risk," he said.
Haggie said a similar number of people will be vaccinated over the next few days.
New COVID strain prompts travel restrictions
Monday's briefing comes after the federal government moved swiftly Sunday night to increase travel restrictions on flights from the United Kingdom.
As of midnight, no passenger flights — save certain exemptions, such as for safety reasons — coming from the U.K. may land in Canada. The ban is in place for 72 hours in the wake of a new, potentially more contagious strain of the virus spreading in parts of that European country.
When asked whether officials in Newfoundland and Labrador are concerned about testing for the new strain, Fitzgerald said there haven't been any cases identified in the province.
"That's not to say there isn't any circulating. It's been in the U.K. for quite some time, so it certainly could be here," she said.
"But as far as we know right now, based on the information that we have, it does not appear that the PCR test that we would use to test for this virus is affected by that mutation. It shouldn't affect our ability to detect that strain."
As for the vaccines, Fitzgerald said the mutation in the virus is not affecting the part of the protein the vaccine was developed against.
"Based on initial study and review it does not appear that the vaccine will be ineffective against this newer strain," she said.
"But we are still learning as time goes on, so if we have more information at some point obviously we will let people know that."