There are three new confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the province today.

One is a person under the age of 20 in the Central region, while the other two are former presumptive positive cases reported in the Western Health region.

Twelve people have recovered leaving 53 active cases, including one person in the hospital.

Public Health is involved in two investigations into outbreaks in the Western Health region. One involves the B1617 variant, and the other is the B117 variant. Those outbreaks have caused great concern in the Stephenville and Bay St. George areas.

Chief Medical Officer of Health Dr. Janice Fitzgerald says the source of both infections remain under investigation.

Most positive cases in the Stephenville area have turned out to be a contact of a previous case, however, very recent cases remain under investigation. There has been no widespread transmission in the community to date, says Fitzgerald.

There is no evidence of widespread community transmission in the St. George’s area and Public Health is working to determine if further community testing is needed, and the region remains under Alert Level 4 for the time being with a re-evaluation by the end of the week.

Chief Medical Officer of Health, Dr. Janice Fitzgerald provided a breakdown of the 56 people who have tested positive for COVID-19 after being vaccinated.

Twenty-two were not considered protected as they have received their vaccine less than 14 days prior to their infection date. Thirty-two were not considered fully immunized as they were infected either more than 14 days after their first dose, or less than one week after their second dose.

There were two breakthrough infections post-vaccination, more than one week after the second dose when they were infected.

Only three of those 56 cases are considered to have had severe disease.