2 New COVID-19 Cases, Update on Western Health Case

The province has reported two new COVID-19 cases today.

The two new cases are male and female in the Central Health region between 60-69 years of age. Both are travel-related and are residents of Newfoundland and Labrador. They returned to the province from Alberta. They are members of the same household and have been self-isolating since arrival.

In Light of the new cases, the Department of Health and Community Services is asking passengers who travelled on Air Canada Flight 7484 departing Toronto on Thursday, November 5 and arriving in Deer Lake on Friday, November 6 to call 811 to arrange COVID-19 testing.

The investigation into the Western Health case announced on Sunday, November 8 is finished. During the course of the investigation into the source of this case, the provincial Public Health Laboratory, operated by Eastern Health’s Microbiology Laboratory, identified an inaccurate test result. The reported positive test result is in fact negative and resulted from a data manipulation error that occurred during the reporting of test results.

As part of the investigation, two positive cases that were previously unidentified from last weekend were also discovered. These are the two positive cases announced today.

Eastern Health will hold a media availability today regarding the identification of an error in reporting of some COVID-19 test results. David Diamond, President and CEO, and Dr. George Zahariadis, Director of the Provincial Public Health Laboratory, will be available to answer questions from the media.

The province has seven active cases. 287 people have recovered from the virus. To date, 55,586 people have been tested.