10 new cases of COVID-19 in N.L., as 20 people recover

Newfoundland and Labrador is reporting 10new cases of COVID-19 on Thursday, all in the Eastern Health region.

There have also been 20 recoveries since Wednesday's update, leaving 335 active cases a drop of nearly a hundred cases from Saturday's high of 434.

Ten people are now in hospital due to the virus up from six on Wednesday with five in intensive care.

There have been five deaths since the pandemic began, with the latest, a man over 70, succumbing to the viruson Wednesday.

As the active caseload falls, so have testing numbers. Health-care workers swabbed 489 people in the last 24 hours, a fraction of the tests conducted last week, when daily numbers topped 3,000.

In total, 110,665people have been tested since last March.

Chief Medical Officer of Health Dr. Janice Fitzgerald is slated to deliveran update on Alert Level 5 on Friday, which markstwo weeks since the province returned to its strictest level public health restrictions.

During Wednesday's live briefing Fitzgeralddeclined to offer a potential date for lifting restrictions that have kept schools across the province closedand non-essential businesses closed apart from curbside pickup.

But, she said, when restrictions are lifted, personal interactions should still be limited.

"When we do things, and they work, people think we didn't need them," Fitzgerald said."ButI would caution people against that line of thinking, because we have no idea what would have happenedhad these measures not been put in place."

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