COVID-19 hospitalizations jump by 8 in N.L.
24 people are in hospital, 3 in critical care
Newfoundland and Labrador is reporting a sharp spike in COVID-19 hospitalizations in its first May update.
Since Friday, the province's hospitalizations have jumped 50 per cent — from 16 on Friday to 24 on Monday. There are three people in critical care, down one since Friday.
The province has also had another death due to COVID-19: a person 80 years old or older in the Western Health region. There have now been 165 COVID-19 deaths in the province, with nearly one-third of those — 54 — reported last month alone.
The Health Department is also reporting 197 new cases since Friday's update: 103 on Saturday, 29 on Sunday and 65 on Monday.
Those numbers, though, are not a true indication of the spread of COVID-19, since the Department of Health is no longer releasing data on how many people are being tested and is restricting PCR testing.