All public high school and intermediate exams for the English and francophone school districts in Newfoundland and Labrador are cancelled for this year.

Education Minister Brian Warr announced the decision at Thursday’s daily briefing on the COVID-19 pandemic.

“The cancellation of exams does not mean that learning is ending or the school year is over,” said Warr.

Students will be given a grade to reflect their work to March 13th, the final day of classes before schools were closed because of the pandemic. Students will get this mark by April 22nd.

Education and instruction will move online and will see teachers connect through Google Classroom and Google Meet, but the exact details are still being worked out.

When pressed on how students who may not have internet access will be able to take part, Warr didn’t have specific information, and only said the government was working on it.

“Not one student will be disadvantaged here because of connectivity,” he said.
Shortly after Warr’s announcement, the Newfoundland and Labrador Teachers’ Association sent out a media release, praising the move.

“The NLTA supports this decision, and agrees that should schools be in a position to reopen this school year, the focus needs to be on instruction, not testing,” reads the statement.

The Newfoundland and Labrador English School District said it is in talks with Memorial University and the College of the North Atlantic “with regards to flexibility around entrance requirements and their processes for determining scholarship recipients.”

To help ease the financial strain on the families within Nunatsiavut Region, THRA will be forgiving the monthly house payments, and the monthly duplex rental payments, effective April 1 – August 1, 2020.

THRA will review again in July, 2020, to determine if more time is needed.

We hope that this helps to elevate the financial burden on families during this pandemic.

If anyone has any questions, please call 709-896-8126.

Stay safe!

Due to COVID-19, the Moravian Churches in Nain, Hopedale, Makkovik and Goose Bay are closed this Easter.

OK Radio met with the Nain Moravian Church on a way to air the Palm Sunday Sermon at 10 am.

April 5th, 2020, we will be airing this recording at 10 am followed by the sermon by Pastor Andrews and there will be no afternoon show.

OK Radio will be back on the air for the regular 1-3 show on Monday April 6th, Tuesday April 7th, and Wednesday April 8th.

Tune in on Sunday, April 5th to hear this Palm Sunday Moravian Sermon.

The government of Canada have been working very hard to try and get money for communities and for families.

We spoke with Member of Parliament Yvonne Jones.

She wanted to speak to our audience about the funding that was announced such as money for Nunatsiavut, Update on the Mail, The Canada Response Benefit and the Business Loan Subsidy.

If you need help applying for CERB on or after April 6th, 2020 you can call 1-800-959-2019.

Click here to hear Jones give you the information about the funding from the government of Canada.

Newfoundland and Labrador has identified eight new cases of COVID-19 within the last 24 hours, bringing the provincial total to 183.

Dr. Janice Fitzgerald, the province’s chief medical officer of health, said Thursday during the daily COVID-19 update that the new cases are in the Eastern Health region.

As of Thursday, 174 cases are within the Eastern Health region of the province, three are in Central Health, one is in Western Health and five are in Labrador-Grenfell.

Fitzgerald said 143 cases are related to Caul’s Funeral Home.

• 14 cases are under 20 years old.
• 24 are between 20 and 39 years old.
• 31 are between 40 and 49 years old.
• 41 are between 50 and 59 years old.
• 38 are between 60 and 69 years old.
• 35 are 70 years old or above.

“I need everyone to understand that we are at the beginning of this epidemic in our province and now is not the time to become complacent,” Fitzgerald said.
So far there have been 2,929 samples tested in the province.
Health Minister John Haggie again reiterated that the pandemic is a marathon, not a sprint.

“We are, from experience of our other jurisdictions, not yet into our likely surge period. This is likely to come over coming weeks, and we are working hard to understand when that might be.”

Haggie said families should plan for virtual gatherings over Easter, and camping plans should remain on hold as Victoria Day weekend approaches at the end of May.

The Department of Health and Community Services is extending the validity period of the Medical Care Plan (MCP) cards to June 30, 2020.

This will cover all individuals whose MCP eligibility otherwise expired as of March 1st, 2020 onward, excluding those who have permanently moved out of NL.

The extension preserves provincial public health coverage for those NL residents, including permanent residents, residents who are outside the province or country but finding it difficult to return home due to the pandemic COVID-19 that includes those residents who are working temporarily or vacationing abroad.

These charges eliminate the need to mail, fax or drop off MCP renewal applications to the MCP offices in St. John’s or Grand Falls Windsor during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Individuals are encouraged to check their MCP expiry date or renewable notice to determine if these measures apply.

Renewable cards reflecting the extension of coverage will not be mailed to individuals. Health care providers may contact the MCP offices for confirmation of coverage.

There will be staff available to answer questions to the public, the St. John’s office phone number is 1-866-449-4459 or to call the Grand Falls-Windsor office at 1-800-563-1557, you can also email your questions to mcpregistration@gov.nl.ca.

Calling all nurses-the College of Nurses is reaching out to retired nurses to help fill some of the need in the health care system.

As a number of COVID-19 cases rises and more people become hospitalized, nurses and other health care frontline workers will need to take time off and get a break from the demand.

That’s where the College of Nurses is stepping in, calling on retired nurses to help out surge capacity.

Executive Director of the College of Nurses, Lynn Power says it’s been something that’s been discussed for some time, even before the pandemic.

They’re now ready to launch an emergency licensing process, for retired and non-practicing registered nurses who are eligible to come forward.

Courtesy from VOCM news.

Dr. Fitzgerald announced these numbers yesterday:

23 new positive cases in the Eastern Health region
175 Total cases
166 Eastern Health
3 Central Health
1 Western Health
5 Labrador Grenfell Health
120 are related to Caul’s funeral home (no new numbers today, 120 is numbers from yesterday)
55 percent females
45 percent males
15 people in hospital 1 Central, 1 Labrador Grenfell and 13 in Eastern
3 in ICU
1 death in Eastern Health (this past Sunday-no recent deaths)
10 people have recovered
2816 tested

*Public health state of emergency extended for another 2 weeks. Dr. Haggie expects to be renewing this Public Health State of emergency for a while.

Due to the COVID-19 many Canadians around the world are impacted by this situation, and that included the Canada Post.

We spoke with our MHA for the Labrador District Lela Evans about this situation.

And she would like to inform our listeners about what is happening with the Canada Post situation.

Click here to find out what Evans has to say.

The Department of Health and Social Development would like to inform our listeners on what is happening so far with the Pandemic of the COVID-19.

We spoke with Joanne Pye and Megan Hudson with the DHSD in Nain.

This interview is to update residents and other communities about this situation.

Pye and Hudson would like to inform everyone about what safety tips should be given to community members.

Click here to find out what they have to say about the COVID-19.