COVID-19 connected to St. John's elementary school, as N.L. announces 9 new cases

Newfoundland and Labrador is reporting nine new cases of COVID-19 since the province's last update, which could include a case in a St. John's elementary school.

According to a letter sent Sunday by the Newfoundland and Labrador English School District, a community member of St. Mary's Elementary School hastested positive for the virus. The letter says students who are deemed close contacts will receive further information and guidance from public health.

Anyone who did not receive a notification by 4 p.m. Sunday is not considered a close contact. The school remained opened Monday, except for those who were instructed to self-isolate.

Nine new cases across Newfoundland

On Monday, the Department of Health announced nine new cases of COVID-19, but it's not clear if the case at St. Mary's is included in that total. Five of the new cases are in the Eastern Health region: two people under 20 years old, one person between 20 and 39, and two people in their 40s.Four are contacts of a previously known case, while one is related to international travel.

There are two new cases in Central Health, both people under 20 years old, and two new cases in Western Health, both people between 20 and 39. All four people are contacts of previous cases.

Public Heath officials also reported two new recoveries, and one person is in hospital due to COVID-19. The province's active caseload is 21, up from 14 on Friday.

The number of completed COVID-19 tests in Newfoundland and Labrador remains unavailabledue to the IT outage affecting the province's health-care system.

The province also shared its first details on how many children ages five to 11 are now vaccinated against the viruson its COVID-19 website over the weekend.

As of Thursday, about 200 children, or 0.6 per cent of the eligible population, had received a first dose.

Over 90 per cent of people age 12 and olderare fully vaccinated, while 94 per cent have received at least one dose.

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