N.L. reports 493 new cases of COVID-19, first drop in daily total in more than a week
CBC
Newfoundland and Labrador is reporting 493 new cases of COVID-19 as the province enters a modified version of Alert Level 4, tightening public health restrictions to slow the spread of the fast-moving Omicron variant.
Tuesday's total is a slight drop in the number of reported cases, marking the first day the province hasn't recorded a new record high in eight days.
There are 267 new cases in the Eastern Health region, including 167 people under the age of 50. There are 125 cases in the Labrador-Grenfell region, 57 cases in the Central Health region, 33 in the Western Health region, and 11 cases found in a private testing lab outside the regional health authorities.
The new case totals, offset by 164 reported recoveries, raise the province's active caseload to a new high of 3,254. One person is in hospital due to COVID-19.
Since Monday, 4,033 tests have been done, with a positivity rate of 12.2 per cent. Test positivity is the percentage of the COVID-19 tests performed that produced a positive result.
A high positivity rate indicates a high level of transmission but doesn't necessarily reflect overall positivity in the general population, if a province isn't testing enough people or people aren't seeking out tests. The rate also does not include rapid test results, which are usually done by individuals and not reported to officials.
Although the number of tests completed is rising daily, public health reaffirmed changes to the criteria for PCR testing announced at Monday's COVID-19 briefing.
Effective immediately, says public health, anyone who is a close contact of a case and has symptoms should assume they are positive for COVID-19. Officials say a test is not needed to confirm the result, but any close contacts who are asymptomatic should get tested. Anyone who has symptoms and is not a close contact of a case should also be tested.
The change was made as the demand for testing is exceeding processing capacity, Chief Medical Officer of Health Dr. Janice Fitzgerald said Monday. She said the time to get test results back from the province's laboratory is around three days.
New cases continue to crop up in hospitals in the province. On Tuesday morning Eastern Health said five patients on a unit at the Dr. L.A. Miller Centre in St. John's tested positive for COVID-19.
Eastern Health subsequently cancelled all outpatient appointments at the hospital. Patients will be contacted by their health-care team regarding their next appointment.
"Following the first positive case reported on Dec. 29, testing and investigation have been ongoing, resulting in the identification of an additional number of positive cases on the unit," the health authority said in a media release.
"Eastern Health is awaiting some test results and has moved quickly to minimize any potential spread of the COVID-19 virus at this site."
The release said testing of affected patients is complete, and all COVID-19 positive patients on the unit were close contacts of each other. They are in isolation, Eastern Health said, and following infection-control procedures. All other patients on the unit have tested negative for COVID-19 to date, and the unit is closed to new admissions and to visitors.
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