ST. JOHN'S, N.L. — New positive results may only be trickling in at the moment, but Chief Medical Officer of Health Dr. Janice Fitzgerald says the province is broadening its COVID-19 testing criteria again to get a clearer picture of the coronavirus’s spread.
“We want to make sure we are finding as many cases as possible,” Fitzgerald said during Wednesday’s daily briefing in St. John’s.
“We’ve had restrictions in place with regard to self-isolation and travel. We’ve seen our (Caul’s) Funeral Home cluster has started to die down. So, we want to make sure we are catching every case that we can.”
Under the new standard, anyone who presents with two or more of a specific set of symptoms — fever, cough, headache, sore throat, runny nose — will now be tested.
Fitzgerald warned that anyone who gets tested must stay home for 14 days, whether or not they test positive.
Results can take up to five days.
“I think that will be very informative over the coming days to see what we don’t know about where it might be,” Health Minister Dr. John Haggie added later in the briefing.
Daily numbers
Meanwhile, Wednesday’s tally was three new cases. Two are in the Eastern Health region and one is in the Western region. The latter region now has four cases, after lingering at one case for weeks.
Of the 247 total positive cases, 229 are in the Eastern region. Haggie said testing in that region has been more robust because of the extra need for contact tracing.
The regional rates of testing per 100,000 people are: Eastern, 1,239; Labrador-Grenfell, 840; Western, 531; and Central, 458.
Eight people are in hospital, three of those in intensive care, and 159 people have recovered from the disease.
Tracking sources
Fitzgerald made a point of clarifying what the term community transmission means from a public health perspective.
She said any spread of any disease in a given community is technically community transmission, but the main concern is positive tests that cannot be traced to any other known case.
She said 80 per cent of positive cases have been due to local transmission, but their origins are known. About eight per cent of cases came from outside the province, such as those who returned from travel.
Only two per cent — a total of five cases — could not be traced directly or indirectly to a source.
“What we have to keep in mind is that this virus is a resident of Newfoundland and Labrador. It’s here,” Premier Dwight Ball said. “We are not free of COVID-19 and although it’s an unwanted resident in our lives and in our communities, it is in Newfoundland and Labrador.
”It’s not welcome. I’d like nothing more than to just simply kick it out. But that can only happen if we work together, by not moving around.”
Ball said the fact that 50 per cent of the almost 1,000 COVID-related deaths in Canada were in seniors facilities was the main impetus for this province clamping down on personal care workers' movement between job sites.
Fitzgerald announced Tuesday that all workers in personal care homes are required to pick a facility and stick to it. The province has offered to help operators achieve those orders.
What is known, Ball said, is that “this virus travels easily and it travels quick.”
Focus on seniors
Ball said seniors, especially those who live alone, are having a particularly hard time adjusting to the lockdown.
As a result, he has invited seniors advocate Suzanne Brake to join the panel at Thursday’s daily briefing.
“We need to support our seniors in every way we can during this pandemic,” he said.
Meanwhile, Haggie repeated warnings to those trying to find loopholes around the five-person limit on gatherings. He said the temptation to go gravel pit camping would increase the risk of intermingling, and should be avoided.
“I understand the frustration. I have a camper myself,” he said. “I’m not going to see that for some months yet.”
He also said the recent recommendation to wear masks in public has created some unique dilemmas, and he asked people to show flexibility with the norms that they’re used to.
“I think we need to look at adapting our way of working to allow for a new reality. A mask in a bank is no longer what it used to be.”
In other developments Wednesday:
• Fitzgerald said there are no plans to lift the ban on recreational facilities, including tennis courts and golf courses, because it would only encourage people to gather together.
• Haggie praised the initiative of PolyUnity, a local company whose newly designed face shields are now approved for use in the local health care system.
• Haggie said with no community or municipal cleanups happening, people have to take more responsibility for their public actions.
Peter Jackson is a Local Journalism Initiative reporter covering health for The Telegram