Today (Friday, April 16), Newfoundland and Labrador has three new confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the Eastern Health region.

The first new confirmed case is a male Between 40-49 years of age. The case is related to travel within Canada.

The second new confirmed case is a male between 40-49 years of age. The case is related to travel within Canada.

The third new confirmed case is a female between 20-39 years of age. The case is related to travel within Canada.

Contact tracing by Public Health officials is underway. Anyone considered a close contact has been advised to quarantine.

There are no new recoveries and 1, 011 people have recovered. There is one person in hospital due to COVID-19.

There are 18 active cases of COVID-19 in the province.

The regional breakdown of the 18 active cases is as follows:
• Eastern Health – 9
• Central Health – 0
• Labrador-Grenfell Health – 0
• Western Health – 9

To date, 128,895 people have been tested.

There are no new presumptive positive cases.

The Nain Department of Health and Social Development is having a Mental Health Week Video Campaign.

They would like a mental health message from you; it can be a picture of you holding a message or a short video clip.

All entries will be used to make a larger video that will include all five Nunatsiavut communities.

This video will be shared on all their social media platforms.

To enter, you can post in the comment section on the Nain DHSD Nunatsiavut page or inbox them to Elsie or Rutie.

You can have a chance to win one of two grand prize draws of an iPhone 11 or a SPOT Gen3 Satellite GPS Messenger.

In addition, there will be an individual prize draw for each community for a $50 Visa Gift Card.

If you have any questions, or need help with submitting a photo or video, please call Elsie at 922-2183 or Rutie at 922-2126 ext. 231.

Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami is holding a survey online for all Inuit students who are considering Post-Secondary Education or that are already enrolled.

They would like to have the survey completed by April 30th, 2021.

Any Inuit students who complete the survey will have a chance to win an iPad.

You can complete the survey by going to www.surveymonkey.com.

The Nunatsiavut Government is developing a Refreshed five-year Tourism Strategy to provide the foundation to promote responsible tourism development for our path forward.

Sharing our special region with others, when the time is right and while following all health and safety protocols, has the potential to strengthen our cultural knowledge and traditions while providing social and economic to the communities across Nunatsiavut.

One of our main goal is to have out communities’ voices heard. We would like to hear your opinions, ideas, concerns, and hopes for tourism development in Nunatsiavut.

The information gathered will be used as the guiding force for the development of the Refreshed Tourism Strategy and will help to determine the best course of action for developing tourism that we, as community members, can feel proud of.

To participate in our survey, you can check the Nunatsiavut Tourism Facebook page or contact Ruth Jacque at ruth.jacque@nunatsiavut.com or Gillian Edmunds at gillian.edmunds@nunatsiavut.com.

The deadline to participate in the survey is April 23rd, 2021.

We have the ice measurements that was taken this morning around the Postville area.

And here are the measurements:

At Big Point the ice is 22 inches thick

At Sandy Point 24 inches

Harold Goudie’s Point 25 inches

Off the Big Dock 24 inches

Tom Oliver’s 24 inches and at Spruce Point the ice is 28 inches thick.

Nunatsiavut Government conducted a Green Energy Survey last year and plan to come to Nain to present the results.

Jessica Winters will be traveling to Nain along with her supervisor Nick Mercer.

She is the Community Energy Lead for the Nunatsiavut Government.

The presentation of the results will be held at the Jeremias Sillitt Community Center on the 26th of April 2021.

Winters adds that they also plan to have a youth night on Wednesday, April 28th, 2021.

Click here to find out more.

Today, Thursday, April 15, Newfoundland and Labrador has two new confirmed cases of COVID-19.

The first new confirmed case is a male in the Western Health region between 20-39 years of age. The case is related to travel within Canada.

The second new confirmed case is a male in the Eastern Health between 60-69 years of age. The case is related to international travel.

Contact tracing by Public Health officials is underway. Anyone considered a close contact has been advised to quarantine.

There is one new recovery in the Western Health region and 1,011 people have recovered. There is one person in hospital due to COVID-19.

There are 15 active cases of COVID-19 in the province.

The regional breakdown of the 15 active cases is as follows:

· Eastern Health – 6
· Central Health – 0
· Labrador-Grenfell Health – 0
· Western Health – 9

To date, 128,432 people have been tested.

The Council of Atlantic Premiers has decided to postpone the reopening of the Atlantic Bubble for at least another two weeks.

The original plan was to loosen restrictions on Monday, April 19, but a recent surge in cases of COVID-19 and the presence of variants of concern caused the provinces to reconsider.

As of Tuesday, New Brunswick is reporting 132 active cases of COVID-19, while Nova Scotia has 45, 11 in Newfoundland and Labrador, and PEI is reporting seven active cases.

Based on the advice of the Atlantic region’s Chief Medical Officers of Health, and as long as all goes well, the new date to reopen the bubble is May 3.

The Council says the two-week delay will allow the provinces more time to deal with localized outbreaks and continue the rollout of vaccinations.

Another meeting of the Premiers will be held in the last week of April to determine whether another delay is required.

Effective this weekend, the size of formal gatherings is expanding to 100.

That does not apply to social or informal gatherings which must be limited to your closest 20 contacts.

Chief Medical Officer of Health says formal gatherings are limited to specific circumstances. That includes funerals, weddings, burials, and religious services.

Larger venues with normal operating capacities of 500 people or more may request approval to host larger gatherings by submitting a proposed operational plan through the Department of Digital Government and Service NL.

Rising COVID numbers outside the province and the prevalence of variants of concern has prompted Public Health officials to change the requirements around essential workers coming into the province.

Chief Medical Officer of Health Dr. Janice Fitzgerald says essential workers are necessary for “the continued functioning of our communities.”

Before now, essential workers were allowed to proceed directly to work and isolate at all times when not working. Starting Monday, that changes.

New testing and self-isolation requirements will be in place for essential workers, ensuring that they are tested upon arrival in the province and they must self-isolate before receiving the result of that test result.

Essential workers staying in the province two days or less will not require an arrival test but must remain in self-isolation when not working.

Those staying longer must be tested again on days seven, eight, or nine and then again toward the end of the 14-day self-isolation period.

If at any point any symptoms develop, new testing must be arranged, even if a negative test result was previously received.

Different testing arrangements are being made for truck drivers whose time in the province is limited, the details of which are available on the provincial government’s COVID website.