N.L. reports 3 more COVID-19-related deaths, pushing provincial total to 34
CBC
Newfoundland and Labrador is reporting three more deaths due to COVID-19, the most in a single day since the pandemic hit the province.
Chief Medical Officer of Health Dr. Janice Fitzgerald said at a provincial briefing Wednesday that all three deaths were people in the Central Health region.
Thirty-four people the province have now died of COVID-19 since March 2020 — 15 in the last month.
The province also reported 304 new cases and 308 recoveries, dropping the known active caseload to 2,680. Twenty people are in hospital due to COVID-19, unchanged from Tuesday's update.
Since Tuesday, 2,017 tests have been completed, with a positivity rate of 15.1 per cent. More than 474,000 tests have been completed over the course of the pandemic, said Fitzgerald.
Despite the high numbers, Fitzgerald says the province is in Alert Level 4, rather than the stricter Level 5, to try to balance public health goals with societal effects.
"Our goals are to minimize the impact on society, while also minimize severe disease and deaths and keeping hospitalizations at a level that our health system can manage. Our vaccination rate is helping … but we still have work to do," she said.
"All that work we put in has prepared us to see this through."
Fitzgerald also addressed the contact tracing system in schools, in which parents are not obligated to notify the school if the child tests positive.
While she said understands why parents might be concerned, but said the goal is to try to prevent students from being caught in repeated isolation cycles that would keep them out of the classroom, or have an effect on their — or their family's — mental health.
If their child develops symptoms, parents are asked to use their supply of rapid COVID-19 tests.
The province is also changing testing requirements for those who have previously tested positive and face a second exposure. If a person has tested positive for COVID-19 on or before Dec. 21, 2021 and becomes a close contact of another case within 90 days, they do not need to be tested or isolate.
Meanwhile, Education Minister Tom Osborne and Newfoundland and Labrador English School District CEO Tony Stack — both present at the briefing — announced the expansion of online learning resources for junior and senior high school students.
The province is adding educators to help develop resources for its Centre for Distance Learning and Innovation Program, commonly known as CDLI, including six people who will create additional online learning resources to support math and reading in junior high.
Run 3 Space | Play Space Running Game
Traffic Jam 3D | Online Racing Game
Duck Hunt | Play Old Classic Game
A suspended Moncton structural engineer faces more lawsuits alleging design flaws in buildings that require repair.
Sajjade Tugano has come a long way since he first set foot in Chibougamau, six hours north of Quebec City, in the depths of winter in November 2021.
A national mentor-based hockey organization that helps marginalized youth through the sport is paying tribute to one of its members and youngest coaches.
After months of asking the City of Saskatoon to do more to solve its homelessness crisis, advocate David Fineday took to the stand at city council Tuesday.
A community organization wants to breathe new life into a historic building in Regina.
Some Prince County residents are walking away with more answers after attending Tuesday night's public information session in Albany, P.E.I., on the Wejipek Wind Project.
After just a few months of using vape detectors in a couple of bathrooms, a B.C. high school principal says it's reduced vape use in those areas to basically zero.
Burlington MP Karina Gould gets boost from local young people after entering Liberal leadership race
A day after entering the Liberal leadership race, Burlington, Ont., MP and government House leader Karina Gould was cheered at a campaign launch party by local residents — including young people expressing hope the 37-year-old politician will represent their voices.
Anold Mulaisho was born intersex and wonders where they fit in, in the wake of U.S. President Donald Trump's executive order for the United States to recognize only two sexes, male and female.
WARNING: This story contains references to suicide.
Subway service is down on Line 1 between Sheppard West and Lawrence West due to a broken power rail, the TTC said Wednesday morning.
A long-term care home in Toronto's Yorkville neighbourhood has cleared one more hurdle to add desperately needed beds to its property, a move that's been praised by housing advocates but opposed by locals concerned about the impact on the neighbourhood.
A Charlottetown resident is calling on the P.E.I. government to do more to protect homeowners after reading about a recent oil spill very similar to one on his Montague property 20 years ago, which he says ruined him financially.
WARNING: This story includes details of abuse.
Two years after Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly declared she was taking the unprecedented step of moving to confiscate millions of dollars from a sanctioned Russian oligarch with assets in Canada, the government has not actually begun the court process to forfeit the money, let alone to hand it over to Ukrainian reconstruction — and it may never happen.
Alberta business and oilpatch leaders are returning home from Washington this week after the U.S. presidential inauguration festivities — and gritting their teeth after a roller-coaster of emotions.
Youth workers in Toronto's Jane and Finch area are flipping the script on negative stereotypes about their communities with a new fundraising campaign that offers anti-bias training in exchange for donations to bolster their programming.
In a sudden move that came late Tuesday evening, city officials rolled out cots and temporarily opened a warm building in east London as frigid temperatures continued.