Newfoundland and Labrador reported 319 positive cases of COVID-19 on Wednesday in its weekly update.

There are eight people in hospital due to the virus, with one person in critical care. Four of those hospitalized are in the Eastern Health region, three in Central Health and one in Labrador-Grenfell Health.

As the number of local COVID-19 infections continues to rise, a St. John's virologist says he was wrong about the virus's projected spread.

Rod Russell, a professor of virology and immunology at Memorial University, said Wednesday that as restrictions lift and the "big restart" of normal life gets underway, the virus and its variants are causing problems.

"The cases are creeping back up again now," said Russell.

"They're actually going up pretty fast. It's the 'big restart,' is what I've been calling it. We are living pretty normal now. Concerts are back on. Travel has rebounded to a level that the airlines didn't even predict. There's a lot less fear," he said.

"People are doing all of the things that they couldn't do for a few years, and the virus is going right along with them."

Russell pointed to the high number of re-infections in the province as evidence that immunity is not necessarily a long-term guarantee, especially considering the fact that many residents received their booster shots at least six months ago.

He said hybrid immunity is becoming more and more common. According to Russell, hybrid immunity occurs when someone was infected prior to receiving the vaccine, and then got vaccinated, or were vaccinated but contracted the virus after the fact. He said the spike protein from the vaccine, combined with the broader immune-response to the virus as a whole leads to hybrid immunity, which he predicts will ultimately lead to milder infections over time.

As for why vaccines and hybrid immunity seem to last for only few months, Russell admitted he was surprised to see re-infection occur so soon.

"I think there's a few things that could be at play," said Russell. "One, maybe we just don't make high levels of antibodies when we're infected or when we get vaccinated. If you have a decline of antibodies, you're not starting from a very high point. Or it could be the response. It's possible that the subtypes of antibodies that we make are just the kind that degrade faster. I don't have the answer, but it's very clear that there's a rapid decline in the antibody levels, and that's making us susceptible."

Russell said the virus will ideally settle into something of a seasonal schedule, similar to the common cold, in which patients could be given COVID-19 booster shots as needed.

However, given the upward trend of cases, Russell argues that stronger vaccines are needed, as immunologists do not recommend the same vaccine every three months.

"We've never done that," said Russell. "We don't know what the effect would be on the immune system. The more the body sees something, the less it starts to worry about it. That's the caution, that too many exposures to the vaccine might eventually start to cause a lack of response to it."