{"id":14368,"date":"2020-05-11T15:47:00","date_gmt":"2020-05-11T19:47:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/airpurifierspecialist.com\/store\/?p=14368"},"modified":"2020-05-17T23:33:38","modified_gmt":"2020-05-18T03:33:38","slug":"n-l-marks-1st-day-in-new-stage-of-reopening-plan-with-zero-new-cases-of-covid-19","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/airpurifierspecialist.com\/store\/n-l-marks-1st-day-in-new-stage-of-reopening-plan-with-zero-new-cases-of-covid-19\/","title":{"rendered":"N.L. marks 1st day in new stage of reopening plan with zero new cases of COVID-19"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Municipal parks are open for walking, Robin Hood Bay residential drop-off operations slowly resume in St. John&#8217;s, small offices are opening \u2014 but things are still far from usual operations today.<\/p>\n<div>\n<p><span><\/p>\n<p><span><\/p>\n<figure>\n<div>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\"  src=\"https:\/\/i.cbc.ca\/1.5564648.1589230832!\/fileImage\/httpImage\/image.jpg_gen\/derivatives\/original_780\/janice-fitzgerald.jpg\" ><\/img><\/p>\n<\/div><figcaption>Dr. Janice Fitzgerald credited residents of Newfoundland and Labrador with helping to keep new COVID-19 infections low.  (Government of Newfoundland and Labrador )<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p><\/span><\/p>\n<p>For a fourth straight day Monday, Newfoundland and Labrador reported no new cases of COVID-19, keeping the total number of cases at 261.<\/p>\n<p>With 244 people having recovered from the virus, the current active caseload stands at 14 for the fifth straight day. As of Monday&#8217;s briefing the province has tested 9,900 people \u2014 79 in the last 24 hours.<\/p>\n<p>The province has\u00a0moved to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gov.nl.ca\/covid-19\/alert-system\/alert-level-4\/\">Alert Level 4 of its phased reopening plan,<\/a> starting a 28-day assessment period as it looks ahead to potentially moving to Level 3\u00a0at some point in June.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;This has come to fruition because of the incredible perseverance and commitment we have collectively demonstrated over the past two months,&#8221; said Dr. Janice Fitzgerald, the province&#8217;s chief medical officer of health, during Monday&#8217;s COVID-19 briefing.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;While moving to the next level is indeed a positive thing, I can&#8217;t emphasize enough the importance of proceeding with extreme caution as we gradually lift some of the public health measures in place.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><em><strong>Watch the full May 11 update:<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<p><span><span><iframe allowfullscreen=\"\" frameborder=\"no\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/RLqtk1IGFMs\" title=\"YouTube content\"><\/iframe><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>The province now allows 10 people, including the officiant, at funerals and weddings, but Fitzgerald reminded the public that this is not for dinner parties, backyard gatherings or casual events. Wakes and visitations are still prohibited.<\/p>\n<p>Municipal parks are open for walking through, residential garbage drop-off is slowly resuming at Robin Hood Bay in St. John&#8217;s, some small offices are reopening \u2014\u00a0but things are still far from usual operations.<\/p>\n<p>Despite changes at municipal parks, Parks Canada issued a reminder Monday that its sites are still closed\u00a0throughout the province until\u00a0at least May 31\u00a0\u2014 so that means no access over the Victoria Day holiday weekend.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We are working diligently to plan for resuming visitation at some locations,&#8221; the agency said in a press release Monday.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><span><\/p>\n<figure>\n<div>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\"  src=\"https:\/\/i.cbc.ca\/1.5564990.1589225954!\/fileImage\/httpImage\/image.jpg_gen\/derivatives\/original_780\/robin-hood-bay-level-4.jpg\" ><\/img><\/p>\n<\/div><figcaption>Robin Hood Bay residential drop off service began a phased reopening to residents of St. John&#8217;s on Monday, as the province moved to Alert Level 4 of its COVID-19 plan.  (Mark Quinn\/CBC)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p><\/span><\/p>\n<p>On Thursday, the province reported two new cases of COVID-19 located within the Eastern Health region. Fitzgerald said one was related to the Kearl Lake, Alta. outbreak while the other was still under investigation.<\/p>\n<p>Fitzgerald said there was no obvious source identified with that case on Monday. However, all contacts had been traced in connection to that case and tests have come back negative.<\/p>\n<h2>The future<\/h2>\n<p>Public health officials will continue to monitor COVID-19 through each alert level to determine when restrictions can be relaxed or strengthened. Fitzgerald said several factors will be considered before any decisions are made, including the number of new cases of the virus, the amount of\u00a0community transmission and health-care capacity to effectively treat a surge.<\/p>\n<p>Further to Monday&#8217;s change in alert levels, the province&#8217;s four regional health authorities will now look to restart\u00a0elective procedures. Health Minister\u00a0John Haggie said the first wave of the virus has passed, but the public must keep in mind that a second wave is likely coming. Haggie said it will not be business as usual for the regional health authorities, as they will need to reserve some capacity to handle any surge of new cases.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Haggie said he has noticed already a push from the public to move faster toward Alert Level 3 and beyond. But with Victoria Day weekend approaching, the health minister still has concerns about public gatherings.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We did well with Easter. But it took us two weeks to find that out.\u2026 We won&#8217;t know how well we&#8217;ve done until early June,&#8221; he said.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We need to pace ourselves. Because if we run, we trip, and we don&#8217;t need to do that. We&#8217;ve seen that in other jurisdictions.&#8221;\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The province&#8217;s travel ban remains in place. All non-essential travellers\u00a0are prohibited from entering the province under an order issued a week ago by Fitzgerald. Primary residents or people travelling for work\u00a0are permitted to enter. Those who are relocating for work or for the purposes of taking care of a family member with health needs can file for an exemption.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Fitzgerald said around 2,000 requests for exemption\u00a0have been filed so far.\u00a0<\/p>\n<h2>Large groups\u00a0<\/h2>\n<p>The weekend saw a large\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.cbc.ca\/news\/canada\/newfoundland-labrador\/fish-harvesters-protest-covid-19-1.5563284\">protest from fish harvesters gathering in the hundreds<\/a>, which drew the attention of the public not because of the\u00a0protest itself, but due to concerns over physical distancing measures.<\/p>\n<p>When asked on Monday how public health could contact trace such a large group of people\u00a0if somebody present was COVID-19 positive, Fitzgerald said the province would begin with close contacts and then branch out to the group itself by contacting organizers to find out who was there.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>If that doesn&#8217;t work, Fitzgerald said she would have to issue a notice for anyone who attended to self-isolate for 14 days and present themselves to public health for follow up.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile, all of the 99 staff at the Health Sciences Centre in St. John&#8217;s, who had contact with a COVID-19 patient and went into self-isolation as a result, have tested negative for the virus. None are feeling unwell, Fitzgerald said.<\/p>\n<p>As of Monday morning, a total of 217\u00a0health care staff are in self-isolation\u00a0across the province.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/cbc.ca\/nl\"><em><u><strong>Read more from CBC Newfoundland and Labrador<\/strong><\/u><\/em><\/a><\/p>\n<p><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.cbc.ca\/news\/canada\/newfoundland-labrador\/alert-level-4-nl-monday-1.5564365\" class=\"button purchase\" rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Municipal parks are open for walking, Robin Hood Bay residential drop-off operations slowly resume in St. John&#8217;s, small offices are opening \u2014 but things are still far from usual operations today.Dr. Janice Fitzgerald credited residents of Newfoundland and Labrador with helping to keep new COVID-19 infections low. (Government of Newfoundland and Labrador ) For a&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[120,162,161,157],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/airpurifierspecialist.com\/store\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14368"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/airpurifierspecialist.com\/store\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/airpurifierspecialist.com\/store\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/airpurifierspecialist.com\/store\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/airpurifierspecialist.com\/store\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14368"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/airpurifierspecialist.com\/store\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14368\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15313,"href":"https:\/\/airpurifierspecialist.com\/store\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14368\/revisions\/15313"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/airpurifierspecialist.com\/store\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14368"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/airpurifierspecialist.com\/store\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14368"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/airpurifierspecialist.com\/store\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14368"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}