N.L. caseload of COVID-19 soars with 23 new positive tests

Newfoundland and Labrador has announced 23 new cases of COVID-19, bringing the province's total to 175. The change marks a stark shift from just Tuesday, when only four new cases were announced.

The announcement marks the second-highest increase of new cases since the COVID-19 crisis began.

"We're at the start of this yet. We have not even hit the surge," said Health Minister John Haggie during Wednesday's daily COVID-19 update.

Dr. Janice Fitzgerald, the province's chief medical officer of health, said Wednesday all new cases are in the Eastern Health region.

Fifteen people have been hospitalized as a result of the virus with three in intensive-care units. Ten people have recovered, Fitzgerald said.

As of Wednesday the province has done 2,816 tests: 2,108 in the Eastern Health region, 289 in Western Health, 218 in Central Health and 201 in Labrador-Grenfell.

"Today I have advised the minister of health and community services to consider extending the existing public health emergency order by another 14 days," Fitzgerald said.

Fitzgerald said she could not say if any new cases were related to the Caul's Funeral Home cluster.

"The reason we don't have that link is we just don't have those investigations finished yet," she said.

There are 166 cases are in the Eastern Health region, three in Central Health, one in Western Health and five in Labrador-Grenfell.

Fifty-five per cent of the cases are female and 45 per cent are male.

• 13 cases are under 20 years old.

• 24 are between 20 and 39 years old.

• 29 are between 40 and 49 years old.

• 40 are between 50 and 59 years old.

• 36 are between 60 and 69 years old.

• 30 are 70 years old or above.

"The fluctuating new numbers we are seeing each day in our province is not unexpected as we are still in the early days of this epidemic in Newfoundland and Labrador," said Fitzgerald.

Health Minister John Haggie has ordered another 14-day state of emergency.

"I expect to be signing this on a regular basis for some months to come," Haggie said.

"We had discussions last night with my federal, provincial and territorial counterparts about the situation across the country and the experts are advising myself and my colleagues that this situation is likely to last beyond Canada Day in some form or another. We are preparing for that as best we can."

Haggie said there are 379 health-care workers in isolation across the province, with 264 in Eastern Health, 32 in Central Health, 48 in Western Health, 28 in Labrador-Grenfell Health and seven who work for the Newfoundland and Labrador Centre for Health Information.

Ten of the workers in the Eastern Health region have tested positive for COVID-19. Haggie said he is not aware of positive cases in the other regions yet.

Asked how many people in the province might have the virus beyond those who have tested positive, Haggie said the data for is being analyzed with modelling that is based on assumptions.

"Those assumptions have to be tested in reality. So how infectious is this disease? How many people will one person infect? Is the fact that 30 per cent of people in an area in China actually had COVID-19 relevant to Newfoundland and Labrador?" Haggie said.

"All of these things are questions that we are asking, and I think the analysis of what's happened in the first couple of weeks will certainly help inform what's going to happen over the next couple of months or even longer."

Haggie said there have been challenges at the federal level with getting the data in a uniform format across the country.

"We hope through the Canadian Institute for Health Information to be able to produce some national models over the next little while," said Haggie.

Premier Dwight Ball on Wednesday reiterated that people should be travelling within the province only when essential.

Asked if people should wear masks in public, Fitzgerald didn't say yes or no but noted masks can't replace proper handwashing and keeping your hands away from your face. She added homemade masks don't offer the same protection as medical-grade masks.

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