Public Health has officially tabled its report in the House of Assembly on its response to the COVID-19 Pandemic.
The document was officially tabled on September 14th.
The 105-page report chronicles the province’s response to the pandemic and the measures that were put in place.
It breaks down the response into four “chapters,” each of which covers the responses to the various strains of the virus between March 2020 and March 2022.
The conclusion of the report cites the Public Health Protection and Promotion Act, which was enacted six months before COVID was first identified in China. It says the legislation gives the Chief Medical Officer of Health extensive authority during a public health emergency and notes that it “could not have come at a better time.”
In total, the document says the public health emergency was extended 48 times for 14-day periods, and 125 special measures orders were put in place.
Talking about Canada as a whole, the report says that, if poorly managed, the pandemic could have resulted in “hundreds of thousands of deaths and millions of hospitalizations”
However, as of last July, the document says the country has seen four million cases, 169,500 hospitalizations, and 42,400 deaths, which is “significantly lower” than what would have happened without public health measures.
As well, they say the success of Newfoundland and Labrador’s response, particularly in the second half of the pandemic, is “undoubtedly” due to high vaccination rates and compliance with public health measures.