Community spread of the Delta variant of the COVID virus has been identified in the Baie Verte area, with a total of 42 confirmed cases linked to a recent cluster in the area.
That includes residents of a personal care home in Baie Verte.
An update came today at a late-scheduled live COVID briefing this afternoon, hosted by Acting Chief Medical Officer of Health Dr. Rosann Seviour.
Twenty-three new confirmed cases of COVID-19 were reported today.
Twenty-one of those cases are in the Central Health region, while two are in the Western Health region.
There are also 15 new presumptive positive cases in the province for a total of 77 active cases.
The Baie Verte area is now under Alert Level 3, but Dr. Seviour says schools remain open.
“At this time, we have no cases in school-age children in the region, and there’s no reason that schools in the area cannot continue to operate”, says Seviour.
She says additional measures were put in place in area schools today.
Seviour says the current rise in cases comes as no surprise to Public Health officials, with a fourth wave being experienced across the country.
Visitor restrictions are in place at Notre Dame Bay Memorial Health Centre due to the cases in the region. Residents and patients can only have one essential visitor.