Getting back to normal will be 'gradual' and in stages, Haggie says

The government of Newfoundland and Labrador announced four new cases of COVID-19 within the province in the last 24 hours on Friday.

The new cases are in Eastern Health region of the province, bringing the total caseload to 256.

"If you must go out for essentials this weekend, try to shop in off-peak hours," said Dr. Janice Fitzgerald, the province's chief medical officer of health, at the daily COVID-19 briefing.

"If you are going to expose your family to something this weekend, let it be sunshine and fresh air, and not COVID-19."

Fitzgerald said it's unknown if any of the new cases are related to any activity from the Easter weekend. In some of the cases symptoms began appearingbefore the weekend started.

The provincial government will not be holding live COVID-19 briefings over the weekend but will instead release updates around 2 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday. Premier Dwight Ball said if something abnormal happens over the weekend, government officials will address the public.

Watch the full April 17 update:

As of Friday seven people are in hospital,withthree in intensive care,176 people have recovered and5,585 people have been tested across the province.

Ball referenced ongoing protests happening in other parts of the worldinvolving people who are anxious to return to a normal life. Ball said Newfoundland and Labrador is not ready to reopen.

"We're not ready for that yet in Newfoundland and Labrador. In my estimation that would be irresponsible and we will not be doing anything that's irresponsible," Ball said.

Health Minister John Haggie said the Victoria Day weekend, four weeks away,will not be a typical Newfoundland and Labrador holiday.

"Having said that, we as a government have been having discussions about how a gradual and very staged relaxation of these restrictions and orders could come about. It would be key again to rely on isolation and identification of COVID-19," Haggie said.

"I encourage people now to think of ways that they can use the principles of physicaldistancing and social connectedness to plan how they might wish to enjoy that weekend."

Haggie said the public needs to move away from the idea of waiting out the virus.

"This virus is here. It isn't going anywhere and it will keep coming back from time to time," he said.

The province still says a surge is expected in cases, and had previously said that would likely happen in the fall. Even thoughphysical distancing measures have shown to have flattened the curve in the province, Fitzgerald said she was hesitant to believe the so-called Caul's cluster was the surge the province has been preparing for.

"I think we have done a lot of work, and all Newfoundlanders and Labradorins have done a lot of work to try to curb the spread of this disease. And I think you know what we're seeing now is is a product of that to some degree," she said.

"But I think we certainly can't assume that that cluster was our peak."

While massage therapy and physiotherapy appointments have been shut down,Haggie said that could change within the coming week.

"We would work with the professional associations that represents each of those groups over the course of the next few days to see what would be a sensible way of doing this," Haggie said.

"It's a question of moving from the acute phase, as it were, where we shut down things knowing that at some point for six to eight weeks into this pandemic we would have to re-examine that. And this is the re-examination phase. So you can expect developments in those areas over the course of the next working week."

By region, 238 cases are in Eastern Health, eightin Central Health, fourin Western Health and sixin Labrador-Grenfell.

By age:

• 22 cases are under 20 years old.
• 37 are between20 and 39 years old.
• 37 are between 40 and 49 years old.
• 56 are between 50 and 59 years old.
• 57 are between 60 and 69 years old.
• 47 are70 years old or older.

Haggie joined the daily briefing by Skype on Friday from his home in Gander, not from Confederation Building in St. John's, where he addressed the province on Thursday.

"The bottom line is I would love to have hidden in my corner in the house for the last full week and stay put, butunfortunately we are working in an environment where that is not possible," said Haggie,when asked if travel guidelines throughout the province applied to cabinet ministers.

"I will leave it up to others to judge whether or not my presence in Confederation Building is essential. But we have finally got the technology into at least the 20th century so I can do a lot more of my work from here."

Call 811 for re-evaluation

Haggie is asking people who had previously contacted 811 with COVID-19 symptoms and were told they didn't require a test to call back and ask to bere-evaulated.

The health minister posted on his Facebook page Friday morning that people can call 811 again as the testing criteria havebeen expanded, specifically to include anyone with two or more symptoms of:

Fever or signs of a fever, which include chills, sweats, muscle aches, lightheadedness.
Cough.
Headache.
Sore throat.
Runny nose.

Haggie says the online assessment tool can be found at the Newfoundland and Labrador government's COVID-19 page.

"Make a bubble of protection around yourself and your family, stay in that bubble, and don't burst anyone else's," Haggiewrote in the post.

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