No new cases for first time since late April

For the first time in almost eight weeks, Newfoundland, and Labrador reported no new cases of COVID-19 Friday.

The last time there were no reported new cases in a daily update from the Department of Health was April 27.

Also Friday, there were 10 reported recoveries — seven in the Central Health region and three in the Western Health region.

That leaves 22 active cases in the province: four in the Eastern Health region; three in Central Health; 14 in Western Health; and one in Labrador-grenfell Health.

Of the active cases, two people are in hospital.

Friday’s update comes after consecutive days of single cases reported. Besides statistics, another indicator the province is returning to its pandemic status prior to outbreaks in central and western Newfoundland comes in the announcement that, starting today, the Health Department will not issue COVID-19 advisories on the weekends or provincial government holidays (including this coming Monday), unless warranted. In addition, the provincial government’s COVID-19 hub will not be updated on weekends.

The department says if circumstances change significantly and there is a need to get public health information to the public, it will issue an advisory and/or hold a briefing.

As for the two clusters, the investigation into the one in the Lewisporte area of central Newfoundland has ended with Public Health saying no source has been identified. However, officials advise the risk to the public is low.

However, the investigation continues into the source of infection of a cluster in western Newfoundland in the Stephenville Port-au-port area.

Public Health also concluded investigation of a case reported Wednesday, June 9, in the central region without identifying an infection source. Officials said the case is non-epidemiologically linked, meaning the source of infection may have been asymptomatic and recovered, left the province or did not seek testing.

Another case reported Wednesday, June 9, in the Western Health region, remains under investigation.