Five people are now in hospital with COVID-19 with 14 new confirmed cases reported in the province today.

Twelve of the new cases are in the Eastern Health region, and two are travel-related—including one in Labrador-Grenfell Health involving a member of the military who is isolating and one in Western Health.

Thirty-seven people in the Eastern Health region are now considered recovered, leaving 407 active cases in the province.

There are no new or outstanding presumptive positive cases.

Chief Medical Officer of Health Dr. Janice Fitzgerald says the trends are encouraging with fewer positive cases being reported, but Alert Level 5 will remain in place for the time being.

She is asking people to stay vigilant, keep contacts to your household bubble, and follow public health guidelines when outside your home.

Dr. Fitzgerald says the variant changes the way they deal with case contacts and people with exposures up to three weeks ago may need to get tested.

Health Minister John Haggie says vaccine supply and delivery is starting to “ramp up” with delivery to the province expected in the next 24 to 48 hours.

As the vaccine becomes more available they will work their way through the other criteria including essential health care workers and other essential workers as well as seniors in the community.

He could not provide specific dates and times saying it’s “premature” to raise expectations with dates that are “likely to be missed” due to vaccine supply that is out of their control.