Dr Janice Fitzgerald says it’s safe to ease restrictions for people with COVID.
As of Monday if you develop symptoms, and test negative, try again in 48 hours.
Anyone with symptoms should isolate at home until you have no fever for 24 hours #covid19nfld NL is exploring options to make rapid tests more accessible. Details on that coming #covid19nfld

For the first time in almost 2 years, NL is not in a public health emergency because of COVID. Restrictions for mask wearing and capacity limits are gone
So what does living with COVID look like from here? Here are some common questions a 🧵 #covid19nfld
cbc.ca/news/canada/ne… This ending is now what most people were expecting. For most of the pandemic, low covid meant low restrictions, but what happened instead is that COVID is now more contagious but less severe (largely thanks to 95% of the population being vaccinated, but also Omicron)

You all love my food content so in honour of the St. John’s downtown burger battle a couple friends are trying 4 of the restaurants as takeout #dtburgerbattle2022 We all kinda have a sense of what we ordered but have also forgotten so it’s also semi blind. Here’s the first one!

It has pork belly in it which we like. We like the flavours. Has Asian flavours. It’s a little salty #burgerbattle

It's a COVID briefing

There are 17 people in hospital in NL
287 new cases
1403 tests completed
"We are seeing an increase in COVID activity"
says Dr. Janice Fitzgerald
#covid19nfld As of Monday formal gatherings up to 75% of capacity
Faith based also 75% (with vax pass)
Visitations limited to 75% capacity
Dance floors will be allowed, but masks must be worn
Retails stores at full capacity with no distancing
#covid19nfld

Yes we're having more deaths, because we're having A LOT more cases

March 2020-December 2022:
-2,000 cases
-18 deaths
(so 1 in 110 cases was fatal)

Dec 2022-present
- 20,000 cases
- 45 deaths
(1 in 444)
#covid19nfld

https://twitter.com/ClydeRo67760084/status/1496562220511240203

A couple things to keep in mind, the number of cases since December is actually a lot more than 20,000 (since not everyone can get a PCR test), which means the death rate is actually lower than 1 in 444

It's a COVID-19 briefing, the premier says we're in a "solid situation"
Reiterates some of the highest vaccination rates in the country.
He says most things will return to normal by the middle of March #covid19nfld Andrew Furey says we've trusted the science, and the team at public health for 2 years and we can trust them now
"the light at the end of the tunnel is shining brighter every day"

NL and the Federal Government have signed a term sheet agreement on Muskrat Falls rate ministration. Details are very similar to what was announced last July $5.2 billion restructuring #nlpoli The goal is still the same. Keeping rates below 14.7 cents (instead of going to 23 cents) is still the goal. In the first year alone there’s about $500 million going into reducing rates #nlpoli

It's an NL COVID briefing, focused on k-12 education
The premier says people are passionate about what should be done.
"They're anxious about what's to come, angry even about what the Omicron variant has taken from all of us"
#covid19nfld The premier says his kids, your kids, are losing something valuable every single day
"It's a cruel robbery of experience" he says the safety of kids must come first, and there are lots of opinions, he says we need to follow the evidence #covid19nfld

We're starting a surprise Sunday COVID-19 NL briefing
"The specter of our surge is on our doorstep and we need to address it now" says premier Andrew Furey
He says everyone is looking forward to gathering together with family
He says we need to face the reality #covid19nfld "We know simply the math does not lie, this new variant is more contagious and is here amongst us" says the premier
But says it will be met with a "wall of our collective will"
He says the people have the "courage to see this through" #covid19nfld

It's an unscheduled NL Friday COVID briefing
Premier says they're changing the booster schedule, there are changes to public health restrictions and giving an update on vaccine requirement for civil servants
"This is not a lockdown" he says #covid19nfld Andrew Furey says we are exhausted, we want COVID-19 to go away and he does too.
He says our high vaccination rate is a big help
Almost 100% of provincial government employees are fully vaccinated #covid19nfld

There are road washouts on the Trans Canada highway and it will take more than a week to reconnect, so how do CBC journalists get home? You take a ferry to another province of course. To get to St. John’s I’m headed to Sydney NS Because my self and two colleagues from Radio Canada have a rental car we can drive to Halifax and fly back to St. John’s. It’s a 22 hour journey but it’s doable! My colleague @GarrettBarry isn’t so lucky

A little thread on the kindness of strangers in rural Newfoundland. With the road washed out people in Port aux Basques have realized that my colleagues and I from CBC are stuck here and want to make us feel welcome, even when they’re dealing with a once in a century storm 1/n It started this morning while @GarrettBarry and I were setup doing live reports for CBC News Network. A guy in a truck stopped and thought we looked rain. He showed up with coffee and an invite to his house where he had the wood stove going and we’d warm up in no time! 2/n

This is what people are waking up to in Port aux Basques. The tide is high so the rain has nowhere to go. Wade Osmond came home to this, there’s a couple inches of water in his basement #nlwx This is what Wade is worried about. If this ground gives way he’ll have a brook flowing into his basement #nlwx

The rain has started on the South West Coast of NL. Headed to Port aux Basque where 250mm+ rain had been forecast #nlwx The seas in Port aux Basque are already pretty strong but this is an area that’s used to the wind it’s the rain that has people here worried

*BREAKING* The Greene report is out and it's recommending a huge change in how government operates. Tax increases and big cuts to government. It's called "The Big Reset" #nlpoli “The Big Reset” it focuses on four main areas:
- Reimagining government and governance
- Transition to green economy
- Focus on technology and skills development and supporting seniors
- Improving finances through tax increases and cuts

#nlpoli

I'm anticipating a lot of these types of questions. They're leaving it up for people to decide. It seems to be a two part test:
1. Did you have to go to work, even at alert level 5?
2. Did you interact with the public?

If you answered yes to those two, book your shot

https://twitter.com/KJeefe/status/1390005734876778498

Here's the link from Eastern Health to book your shot if you're " first responders and frontline essential workers, specifically those who have had direct contact with the public during Alert Level 5, who cannot work from home, and who are 16 and older"
portal.healthmyself.net/nleasternhealt…

It's your weekly COVD-19 briefing
There are 6 new cases.
-Three in Eastern, all related to travel
-Two in western, one related to travel, one contact of a previous case
-One in Central, contact of previous case
Four recoveries, so 58 active cases.
Two in hospital
#covid19nfld There has been no indication of onwards spread of COVID outside of affected households says Dr. Fitzgerald.
She says that shows people are following the rules around isolation #covid19nfld

The second contingent of healthcare workers heading from Newfoundland to Ontario is gathering in the military hanger, ready to board a cargo plane. They’ll be relieving workers at the William Osler Health System in Brampton #covid19nfld Premier Andrew Furey says 40 people have volunteered to go. It’s been matching the needs in Ontario with what the healthcare system here and release.
He doesn’t know how many people total will go #covid19nfld

Central Health has now lowered the age to get vaccinated for COVID-19, now anyone 60+ can get it, as well as anyone who's pregnant:
portal.healthmyself.net/nlcentralhealt…
#covid19nfld Labrador Grenfell Health is also adding pregnant people to it's list of eligible people to get vaccinated (it had already opened to people 60 + and all other priority groups)
portal.healthmyself.net/nllabradorgren… #covid19nfld

How is NL doing on the vaccine roll out? Let's take a look at the numbers.
When it comes to doses received per capita, we're on par with most provinces, at about 5,000/100k people
But more of our vaccine is sitting in freezers than most 1/ #covid19nfld Of the 24,000 doses received in NL, 16,500 have been administered, that's 67% of doses used. The only province worse is NS (58%). Saskatchewan has administered 104% of their doses (because they've extracted extra using special syringes) #covid19nfld

There are 15 new cases of COVID-19 today, all in the Eastern region.
There are 372 active cases, thanks to 50 new recoveries today
There are 5 people in hospital, 2 are in the ICU
#covid19nfld Public Health is asking people on AC 7484 from Toronto to Deer Lake on Feb 19 to get a covid test, this is connected to the case in Western announced yesterday #covid19nfld