Another sizeable shipment of COVID-19 vaccines is slated to arrive in Canada starting in about 7 days.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced Friday, March 12, that about 1-million doses of Pfizer-BioNTech’s vaccine will arrive per week from March 22 to May 10.

That stock is in addition to the other vaccines on order for Canada. Trudeau says the Pfizer stock will make a “big difference” as the country continues its vaccination rollout plan.

Pfizer’s vaccine is just one of four that has received Health Canada’s approval.

About 850,000 doses of Moderna’s vaccine are also anticipated to arrive on the week of March 22.

Effective Saturday, March 13th, the Avalon region moved to Alert Level 4 and areas outside the Avalon region moved to Alert Level 3.

The areas outside the Avalon region include:
• Labrador-Grenfell Health.
• Central Health.
• Western Health; and,
• Zone 4 of Eastern Health, which encompasses the Burin and Bonavista Peninsulas, as well as the Clarenville area, including the Isthmus.

On Friday, March 12 we got a hold of Megan Hudson who is the Public Health Nurse with the Department of Health and Social Development.

Hudson gives updates on the new restrictions for Alert Level 3.

Click here to hear more on the Alert Level changes with Hudson.

Effective Saturday, March 13, the Avalon region will move to Alert Level 4 and areas outside the Avalon region will move to Alert Level 3.

The areas outside the Avalon region include:

Labrador-Grenfell Health;
Central Health;
Western Health; and;
Zone 4 of Eastern Health, which encompasses the Burin and Bonavista Peninsula, as well as the Clarenville area, including the Isthmus.

In Alert Level 4, people should limit contacts to their household bubble. They can expand this to connect with immediate family when necessary, bring in caregivers or support isolated people. Informal social gatherings outside the household bubble are not permitted.

In Alert Level 3, each household can have a maximum of 10 close and consistent contacts. This is not 10 contacts per person. It is 10 contacts for the entire household. Informal social gatherings outside of a household’s 10 close and consistent contacts are not permitted.

TODAY, Friday, March 12th, Newfoundland and Labrador has one new confirmed case of COVID-19.

The one new confirmed case is a male in the Eastern Health region between 40-49 years of age. The case is travel-related.

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

There are 57 active cases of COVID-19 in the province.

The regional breakdown of the 57 active cases is as follows:
• Eastern Health – 56
• Central Health – 0
• Labrador-Grenfell Health – 1
• Western Health – 0

There have been eleven new recoveries in the Eastern Health region, and one new recovery in the Western Health region. This means 945 people have recovered.

There are three people in hospital. Two are in intensive care.

To date, 119,611 people have been tested.

Public Health officials are hopeful the COVID outbreak at St. Clare’s hospital in St. John’s is over.

Over the last month, several cases were identified in unit 6A at the hospital, leading to the testing of all patients and staff and the closure of a surgical unit.

Chief Medical Officer of Health, Dr. Janice Fitzgerald, says it has been several days since they had a case related to that cluster.

A total of seven staff and six patients tested positive. Some secondary spread from those cases to other close contacts was also identified.

She hopes the worst of that outbreak is over.

The Department of Fisheries, Forestry and Agriculture is investigating a possible illegal hunt of caribou south of Churchill Falls near the Labrador – Quebec border by a group of individuals from Quebec. This investigation is unrelated to the illegal caribou hunt, which occurred recently in Southern Labrador.

The department’s Resource Enforcement Division is continuing to work closely with Quebec wildlife officers, and Environment and Climate Change Canada (Wildlife Enforcement) to make all reasonable efforts to protect caribou in Labrador.

The hunting of caribou in Labrador is prohibited. The Boreal Caribou, which inhabit this region in Labrador, are considered ‘threatened’, and thus protected under the Newfoundland and Labrador Endangered Species Act. Boreal Caribou are also listed as ‘threatened’ under the federal Species at Risk Act.

Anyone with information regarding this issue is encouraged to call the Resource Enforcement Division’s Labrador Regional Office at 709-896-7973, the provincial 24/7 poaching line at 1-877-820-0999, or provide a report at www.gov.nl.ca/ffa/ers/report-poaching.

In consultation with the Department of Education and Dr. Janice Fitzgerald, Chief Medical Officer of Health, the Newfoundland and Labrador English School District (NLESD) is preparing to resume full-time in-class instruction (Scenario 1) for K-9 schools in the Avalon region. They will join their counterparts in Labrador, Central and Western regions, who returned to in-class instruction last week.

Meanwhile, high schools throughout the province which cannot operate in Scenario 1, due to an inability to cohort and recently revised Public Health protocols, will all operate under the Scenario 3 (full-time online instruction) model. This includes those in Labrador, Western and Central regions previously identified as entering a Scenario 2 model, with blended in-class instruction/at-home learning environment.

These models will remain in effect until at least Thursday, April 1, and will be re-evaluated at the end of the scheduled Easter Break on April 9.

After discussion with Provincial Government officials, it was determined that the evident success to date of online instruction at the high school level, coupled with complications presented by the Covid-19 variant, the District will continue with full-time online instruction in all high schools at this time, said Goronwy Price, Chair of the NLESD Board of Trustees. “The District will continue to adapt and adjust to Public Health recommendations ad they evolve in order to maximize instructional time for students.”

In Labrador, Western and Central Regions:

• All K-9 students will continue in-class instruction within their schools.
• Schools with high school grades which can operate in Scenario 1 will continue to do so.
• All schools previously identified as operating in Scenario 2 (blended in-class instruction/at-home learning) will revert to Scenario 3 (full-time instruction), on Thursday, March 18.

The District will continue to work closely with the Department of Education, educational partners, the Chief Medical Officer of Health and Public Health officials in the various regions of the province, to adhere to the recommendations and advice provided as the school year continues.

Residents of Newfoundland and Labrador are reminded that Daylight Saving Time begins this weekend.

At 2 a.m. on Sunday, March 14, clocks should be set one hour ahead.

Daylight savings time was first observed in Canada in 1908. Canada has observed daylight savings for 107 years between 1908 and 2019.

When adjusting clocks, residents are encouraged to take the opportunity to change the batteries in smoke alarms and carbon monoxide detectors.

Smoke alarms are required to be installed in the following areas of a residence:

• On every level of your home, including the basement;
• In every bedroom; and
• In the hallway or room outside of every bedroom or separate sleeping area.

It is recommended that each dwelling unit or cabin that has a wood, oil or propane fuel-fired appliance also have a carbon monoxide detector installed on each level of the structure.

Last week the Assembly Sitting went ahead for the Nunatsiavut Government.

For the first time ever Marlene Winters Wheeler, the Speaker of Nunatsiavut says, the assembly sitting went ahead virtually.

They had a total of 54 people at most watching the program through the online website.

They spoke about their budget and spoke about one new member being sworn in.

Stay tuned to hear more on the Assembly Sitting with Wheeler on today’s AtjiKangitut show.

Today, Thursday, March 11, Newfoundland and Labrador have one new confirmed case of COVID-19.

The one new confirmed case is a male in the Eastern Health region between 50-59 years of age. The individual is a close contact of a previous known case.

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

There are 68 active cases of COVID-19 in the province.

The regional breakdown of the 68 active cases is as follows:

• Eastern Health – 66
• Central Health – 0
• Labrador-Grenfell Health – 1
• Western Health – 1

There have been seven new recoveries in the Eastern Health region. This means 933 people have recovered.

There are three people in hospital, two are in intensive care and to date, 119,054 people have been tested.

There are no new presumptive positive cases.