The NL premier will make an “important announcement” at 11:30 am as Deer Lake closes its doors

Furey will be joined by Health Minister John Haggie and Medical Director of Health Dr. Janice Fitzgerald.

The press conference comes in the wake of the daily rise in COVID-19 cases in the province and the City of Deer Lake asking residents to limit non-essential contacts and activities to close for the next 14 days.

There are eight active infections in the western health region of Newfoundland and Labrador, five of which are related and believed to be centered in Deer Lake, as the city said it is facing increasing cases in the community.

Dean Ball, the mayor of the city, said the situation is being evaluated hourly by his council and that they will close the buildings in the city at least until December 7.

“This is a very precautionary measure,” he told CBC Newfoundland Morning on Monday. “We believe that if we could catch this before it gets out of hand we could leave this behind rather than talk about it at Christmas.”

The province has 21 active cases as of Monday morning. New numbers are typically released every day at 2pm, although they may arrive earlier with the change in the schedule for the premier’s press conference.

As of Sunday, 58,980 people have been tested for the virus in the province, 294 people have recovered from COVID-19, and there have been four deaths since the pandemic began in March.

Classes as usual for schools

Despite asking businesses to close and residents to stay home, schools in Deer Lake are still open on Monday. Ball said he has been assured there are no school-related cases, and if that changes, action will be taken.

“This is scary for many people and for many of us. This is not a normal day, [a] walk in the Park. I imagine there are many other problems around closing a particular class or a particular school, “he said.” I wouldn’t have been mad if they were closed. But again, we have faith in the people who make these decisions and are confident that those decisions are the best decisions for now. “

The teachers union echoed concerns about schools in Deer Lake and Grand Bank, which are also seeing a small increase in cases, in a press release Monday morning.

“Schools are the place where all the homes, workplaces and meetings in our communities come together and, unfortunately, it’s also where all the viruses in a community come together,” said Dean Ingram, president of the Newfoundland and Labrador Teachers’ Association. “We cannot afford to wait to improve protections for our students. We should learn from the bad decisions that have been made in other Canadian jurisdictions.”

Ingram called for mandatory face masks for all students, as well as physical barriers for teachers. He said the NLTA challenges people entering schools for extracurriculars such as sports.

Rotational workers facing setbacks

Meanwhile, the mayor of Grand Bank said the city is grappling with a great deal of anxiety, but now that the contact tracing is complete, they hope they’ve turned the corner.

“The uncertainty – one day it’s big, the next day it’s not that big,” said Rex Matthews.

Matthews hopes the virus can be contained in the six cases already confirmed by public health officials. Two of these cases are senior citizens residing in the community nursing home.

Grand Bank has been a hotbed of rumors and speculation about the source of the infections. It led to a flurry of online commentary condemning rolling workers traveling back and forth from places like Alberta.

In a social media group for rolling workers, some people report being called by the RCMP to perform mundane tasks around their property, such as turning on the Christmas lights.

“They make sacrifice,” Matthews said. “You know they travel to other provinces of this country for work, they leave their families, they leave their home, they leave their community and this helps our economy. So under normal circumstances there are no problems, but these are extraordinary times.”

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