Opening travel for Christmas would be the 'wrong decision,' says Dr. Janice Fitzgerald

Newfoundland and Labrador reported no new cases of COVID-19 on Thursday, meaningthe province's caseload remains at 298, while Chief Medical Officer of Health Dr. Janice Fitzgerald, Newfoundland and Labrador's chief medical officer of health,says non-essential travel won't be expanded for the Christmas and holiday season.

Some families have been eagerly awaiting newsfor weeks,as Fitzgerald and the public health team considered the options and risks ofallowingnon-essential travellers from outside the Atlantic bubble into the province.

With second waves of COVID-19 hitting other provinces and parts of the world, said Fitzgerald at the province's weekly pandemic briefing, it's the wrong time to open Newfoundland and Labrador's border, as it's beenthe closure that has helped preventspread of the virus.

"It would be the wrong decision right now for us to open up non-essential travel as of jurisdictions tighten their restrictions in an effort to control the spread of COVID-19," Fitzgerald said.

"We know that many families have been separated for seven months now, and we have seen the toll that the separation is having on the mental health of many of our residents. We encourage anyone that needs support to reach out for help."

Watch the full Nov. 12 update:

When asked if people who arewilling to isolate for 14 days upon arrival could be allowed in, Fitzgerald said the issue isnot about a single person but about a lot of people entering the province, and case numbers in other provinces are muchhigher than when the province first issued its travel restriction order in May.

Many students from Newfoundland and Labrador who are studying outside of the Atlantic bubble will have to self-isolate if they return to the province for the holidays.

This means Dec. 10 is essentially the cutoff date where a student can return home and complete the 14-day isolation in order to safelybe in the same room as family onChristmas Day.

Fitzgerald said she recognizes that situation is difficult, but it has been a difficult year.

"It's really about the risk of bringing that virus home and passing it on to someone you love, too. That would be a great hardship if that were to happen to somebody, I would imagine," she said.

"It's really about doing what's best, what's safest, and I think students who are coming home need to see this as a vital part to keep their community safe, and I think for the most part most of them realize that."

For those inside the province for the holidaysthis year, Fitzgerald gave a reminder that parties and indoor celebrations at home should be scaledback to continue to prevent any potential spread of COVID-19. Fitzgerald added she doesn't recommend people travel outside of the province either.

Fitzgerald said households should not host any more than 20 consistent close contacts during the holidays, and the sharing of food or potlucks should be reconsidered.

"Remember that outdoor activity is less risky than indoor activity. Ensure that you have enough space for everyone to distance themselves appropriately," she said.

"If you only have enough space for 10 people to distance appropriately, then 10 is your maximum."

The province is reporting no new cases of COVID-19 on Thursday, andhasseven active caseswith 287 people having recovered and four deaths from the virus since March.

In total, 55,874 people have been tested since Wednesday, including288 who were tested in the last 24 hours.

Fitzgerald said the province is not considering point-of-entry testing right now.

Lab mix-up

Human error was behind a laboratory mix-up that resulted in two COVID-19 cases in Newfoundland and Labrador going unnoticed for days, along with a false positive test,say public health officials, as they urge people to have faith in the system.

Health Minister John Haggie told CBC Radio's Newfoundland Morning that the testing issue comes at a vulnerable time, as months upon months of public health restrictions are taking their toll on people and fatigue rises.

"The major worry that I have, and my staff have at a departmentlevel, is how to maintain public confidence,"Haggie said Thursday.

"You're starting in some areas to see what I would callpandemic anger, where people are pushing back, actively, simply because they resent the situation in which we all find ourselves, because it is difficult."

Haggie, along with other public health officials, say despite the errors, the public shouldn't worry.

"The test itself works. There's no issue with that. We have an excellent track record in terms of validation," he said.

What led to the mix-up?

Eastern Health announced Wednesday that apublic health investigation uncovered errors within itstesting system at the provincial laboratory in St. John's. Two people in central Newfoundland were told they tested negative when in factthey were positive, while a woman on the west coast was told she was positive despite never having had the virus at all.

• Lab errors reveal 2 new cases of COVID-19 in N.L., disprove case on west coast

The testing equipment itself is sophisticated and"regarded as state of the art across Canada," said Haggie, but in the process of compiling test results, has a flaw: it requires two sets of data to be merged, one set for patient identification and one set for the test results themselves.

Sunday's results were paired with Saturday's patients, Haggie said, causing two positive cases to be missed and the false positive case in western Newfoundland.

The lattersparkeda public health investigation into how the woman, who had none of the red flags for catching the virus,such as travel, could have ended up with the disease in a province with no known community transmission since May.

We need to take this seriously.- John Haggie

She was retested, and when those results came back negative, the doctor who runs the provincial testing laboratory said his staff began reviewing how they work "from beginning to end"and discovered the data-merging mix-up, said Dr. George Zahariadis.

That merging is done manually, and so staff have now changed the way they work and are double-checking date stampsto prevent the mistake from happening again, said Eastern Health CEO David Diamond, who also said investigators are checking past tests.

"We are fairly confident that it hasn't happened before, but we have a review that we've started so we will now go back and review every merge that's occurred since we've started the pandemic to be 100 per cent sure," Diamond said Thursday.

A wake-up call

The two positive cases, who were initially told they were negative, had recently returned to the Central Health region in Alberta.Despite the negative notification, Haggie said, the two people a man and a woman who live in the same household had remained in self-isolation because they still showed symptoms.

He repeated calls he and other officials have made in the past for compassion toward people with the virus, and said the "only true defence againstCOVID-19 is 14 days of self-isolation."

On Wednesday, the Department of Health asked anyone who flew from Toronto to Deer Lake aboard Air Canada Flight 7484, arriving Nov. 6, to call 811 and get tested for COVID-19.

The entire testing issue shows how vigilant people need to remain about COVID-19 and keeping community transmission at baywhile cases rise dramatically elsewhere in Canada, said the health minister.

"We need to take this seriously," Haggie said.

At the provincial laboratory, the double checking of dates is a short-term fix, andDiamond and Haggie both said they are working withthe manufacturer of the lab equipment to see if they can change the software so the need to merge two files can be eliminated.

"I think obviously the solution there would be for the manufacturers to look at upgrading their equipment so that only one file is needed," Haggie said.

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