The provincial government’s live COVID briefings have concluded for 2020—a year few people will never forget.

Since March, the Chief Medical Officer of Health, Dr. Janice Fitzgerald, has been providing regular live briefings on the status of the virus in Newfoundland and Labrador.

At first, she was joined by former Premier Dwight Ball who announced he was stepping down before the pandemic struck. He decided to stay put through the first wave of the pandemic before finally retiring from politics in August. Fitzgerald is now joined by Premier Andrew Furey—a surgeon by profession.

Another surgeon, Health Minister Dr. John Haggie, has been there since the beginning and has attended all but a small handful of briefings. His appearance was temporarily interrupted due to a health matter.

At the height of the first wave of the pandemic, the briefings were held daily—including weekends—and eventually petered off to once a week when numbers bottomed out over the summer.

Since the second wave began, the briefings have been held three times a week with releases issued in between.

Those releases will still be issued daily to provide the latest information on cases. The regular briefings are scheduled to resume on Monday, January 4.