ST. JOHN'S, N.L. — News of a continued downward trajectory in COVID-19 cases in Newfoundland and Labrador was overshadowed Wednesday by a tragic outcome for a person fighting for their life against the coronavirus.
Chief Medical Officer of Health Dr. Janice Fitzgerald confirmed the death of an Eastern Health patient, during Wednesday's media availability. According to a provincial government news release, the man was over the age of 70.
"We extend our sincere condolences to the family at this difficult time," Fitzgerald said.
This is the fifth death in the province linked to COVID-19 since the pandemic started. It also marked the first COVID-19-related death of 2021 in Newfoundland and Labrador.
There were eight new confirmed cases of COVID-19 announced Wednesday and 34 recoveries, leaving 345 active cases in the province. This marked the first time since Feb. 7 that new daily case numbers were in the single digits. All new cases were in the Eastern Health region, and the source of each case remained under investigation as of Wednesday. Six people are hospitalized with the coronavirus, with three of those in intensive care.
"We are seeing our confirmed and active cases dropping, as well as the number of individuals tested," Fitzgerald said, noting 636 people were tested since the previous day's update. "I caution everyone not to let the smaller case count lead to a false sense of security. COVID continues to circulate in the community. Remember that behind each positive case is a group of contacts that need to be identified and tested.
"As other provinces begin to reopen, they are seeing an increase in cases. As long as the variant circulates outside our province, it will make its way back into our province. This is a certainty. This means we are always at risk for another outbreak if we don't remain vigilant."
Regional restrictions
The need to remain vigilant came up Wednesday regarding regions of the province beyond the Avalon Peninsula. Asked whether a lack of new cases in central and western Newfoundland and Labrador — beyond those associated with travel — merited an easement of public health restrictions in those areas, Fitzgerald was noncommittal.
"As we said, we would reassess things at two weeks, so Friday, we should have some updates on that," she said. "Hopefully, we'll be able to let people know what the plans are after that. We do have to remember when we shut things down, we had a variant that was quite contagious. We were seeing quite significant spread here in the (St. John’s) metro area. Had we not done what we did, we might be seeing a very different situation across the island right now.
“This is a paradox of public health. When we do things and they work, people think we didn't need them. But I would caution people against that line of thinking, because we have no idea what would have happened had we not put those measures in place."
Vaccination plans
Fitzgerald announced Friday will also coincide with the release of the province's plans for phases two and three of the COVID-19 vaccination rollout. On that front, Health Minister Dr. John Haggie shared some numbers on how the recent and near-future rollout is proceeding.
"By Friday of this week, when we anticipate another delivery from Pfizer ... we'll have administered a vaccine to every resident of long-term care in this province who wanted it and who is eligible," Haggie said. "By the end of this week, with regard to Phase 1 essential health-care workers, everyone in Labrador-Grenfell will have had at least one dose. By Friday, we'll have had everyone in Western and Central Health who falls into that category with a vaccine in their arm. And by March 5, Eastern Health will have done all their rural essential workers, in addition to their metropolitan ones."
Haggie said registration for seniors over the age of 85 to receive a vaccine dose in the Central Health and Western Health regions will commence March 2. Residents of Indigenous communities in Labrador over the age of 75 have already received at least one dose, and Labrador-Grenfell Health will open registration for other seniors in the region over the age of 75 beginning March 1.
Haggie said there is no guarantee from Moderna that its vaccine will be supplied to the province next month. However, Pfizer has committed to continue supplying 6,000 new doses per week, plus a further 80,000 over the course of March and 249,000 through to the end of May.
"Those last two quantities, we have not seen hide nor hair of as yet, but given the comments on the national scale, we're hopeful and optimistic we may see some or all of that, in which case we have a plan to ramp up vaccination in the way we did with the flu shots and to use anybody whose scope of practice allows them to safely give vaccine if that is not enough," Haggie said.
He said 312 health-care workers across Newfoundland and Labrador were self-isolating as of Wednesday, down from a peak of more than 500 last week.
Wednesday, Feb 24, 2021 Newfoundland and Labrador COVID-19 update
