ST. JOHN'S, N.L. — Newfoundland and Labrador has one new confirmed case, as well as one presumed case, of COVID-19 according to Thursday's update from the Department of Health and Community Services.
In addition, according to Thursday's news release, there are also no reported COVID-related hospitalizations in the province for the first time in seven weeks.
The confirmed case is a female in the Eastern Health region under 19 years of age — close contact of a previously known case, and someone who is a member of the same household.
The individual is self-isolating and contact tracing is complete.
Officials say the case is connected to the recent cluster in the Eastern region, meaning there are now six confirmed cases within the cluster.
They also say the source of the infection is not a daycare which last week had been linked to a suspected case.
The investigation into the source of the infection for the now six-case cluster is ongoing.
The new presumptive positive is also in the Eastern Health region and involves a male between 40 and 49. The individual, a resident of the province, is self-isolating. Contact tracing is underway and anyone considered a close contact is being advised to quarantine.
Additional testing by the provincial Public Health and Microbiology Laboratory is needed to confirm this case. Until confirmation is received, the case is considered presumptive positive so isn’t yet considered an active case. Factoring in one recovery announced Thursday, it means the province continues to have 14 active cases, at least until this case is confirmed positive.
Today's update marks the first time since Dec. 17 a hospitalized COVID-19 patient has not been listed; the daily updates since that date have shown a single case as being in the hospital. However, because of privacy issues, the Department of Health will not confirm whether that string of reports refers to a single patient or if the recovery announced today involves the discharged patient.
In all, since the beginning of the pandemic, 390 people in the province have recovered from the virus, while 81,345 have been tested.
Note: This story has been updated to reflect the Department of Health has corrected today's report to reflect there are 14 active case
