march 30, the province reported newfoundland's first covid-19-related death, a 78-year-old with underlying conditions. the case had been linked to the caul's outbreak. the province reached 148 cases. easing restrictions, the atlantic bubble by mid-april, the number of daily cases had lessened, including streaks of days with no new cases at all. by april 30, 2020, there had been 258 cases and 3 deaths in newfoundland and labrador, no new cases in the last four days, and only two in the past 13. fitzgerald announced a plan to gradually lift restrictions using a five-tier framework of "alert levels", with the existing restrictions classified as alert level 5. one immediate change was that households were now allowed to form a "bubble" with one other household for close contacts. on may 4, 2020, newfoundland enacted a strict ban on entry into the province by non-residents unless otherwise exempted. on may 5, 2020, the house of assembly passed a bill to amend the public health protection and promotion act, authorizing police officers to stop vehicles, enter any premises, and detain people and take them to the border if they are not complying with public health measures. on may 7, 2020, the province reported its first increase in active cases since april 6. newfoundland and labrador entered "alert level 4" on may 11, which allowed some businesses and low-risk recreational activities to resume. on may 20, the province reported its first new case in 20 days, bringing its total to 261. the case was identified as being related to travel. the province advanced to "alert level 3" on june 8, allowing the reopening of non-essential retail, in-person dining at restaurants, and "medium-risk" outdoor recreation. fitzgerald stated that only one new, aforementioned case tied to travel had been recorded during the timeframe of alert level 4. she stated that the province could transition to "alert level 2" within at least three weeks, but that "there's a lot of things that we would be considering, and no one thing in particular will necessarily make that decision for us." on june 17, fitzgerald announced that the province would move to alert level 2 on june 25, after having lasted 20 days without new cases. on june 24, 2020, it was announced that an "atlantic bubble" would be formed beginning july 3, under which residents of the atlantic provinces would be able to travel between them without self-isolation requirements. travel into the bubble from outside of the provinces would still be subject to restrictions, and was subject to rules enforced on a provincial basis. by july 3, newfoundland had gone 36 days without new covid-19 cases. on july 10, the 43-day streak ended with one new case announced, involving a traveler who had recently returned from ontario. on july 21, newfoundland reported another new case related to travel, followed by one more involving a close contact of said patient. on august 17, 2020, fitzgerald announced that the province would mandate the wearing of face masks within enclosed public spaces beginning august 24. the newfoundland and labrador english school district also unveiled its back-to-school plan for k-12 students. on october 3, 2020, the province reported its fourth covid-19-related death, its first since april. the patient had returned from central africa on september 29, and died on october 1. collapse of the atlantic bubble, increasing caseload on november 18, 2020, fitzgerald identified a potential outbreak at the blue crest cottages retirement home in grand bank, with a cluster of four cases tied to the facility. on november 22, 2020, amid an increase in cases over the weekend in newfoundland, the town council of deer lake issued a request for all non-essential businesses to close through december 7. on november 23, 2020, the province announced that it had detected the first covid-19 case within its school system, involving a student at elwood elementary in deer lake. education minister tom osborne announced that elwood elementary would close for the next two days. premier andrew furey announced that newfoundland would suspend its participation in the atlantic bubble for at least 14 days. by december 4, 2020, the province had reached 343 total cases, with 27 active. premier furey announced that the province had established a logistics team for distribution of covid-19 vaccines, and stated that they would be "highly suggested" but not mandatory. on december 5, 2020, a cluster was identified in harbour breton after three people tested positive. out of an abundance of caution, classes were suspended at st. joseph's elementary and king academy on december 7. a mobile testing clinic was set up in the community, with public health officials encouraging all residents to be tested. uk variant outbreaks, second lockdown on february 8, 2021, 11 new cases were reported, in newfoundland's largest single-day increase since april 2020. the province reported that there had been a large number of close contacts associated with two positive cases at a st. john's high school. 30 cases were reported on february 9, all in the eastern health region. it was the province's second largest daily increase to-date. fitzgerald stated that this was evidence of wide community transmission, and ordered a circuit breaker in st. john's effective at midnight. gatherings held by "recognized" businesses and organizations were restricted to 20 participants, restaurants were capped at 50% capacity, and all recreational facilities were ordered closed. on february 10, the province reported a single-day high of 53 new cases, with most said to be among those under the age of 20, and all among residents of the eastern health region (including one who was tested in central but resides in eastern). fitzgerald warned that low case counts in the province had led to complacency, and that "we are now seeing the repercussions." additional restrictions were also announced, including the closure of all non-essential businesses in the st. john's metropolitan area, and the province-wide suspension of all group and team sports, and all group arts and cultural activities involving close contact. the newfoundland and labrador english school district suspended all in-person classes in the area through at least february 26. on february 11, newfoundland announced 100 new cases, its largest increase to-date, with all but one in the eastern health region. the province issued various self-isolation orders for students who had participated in gatherings or team sports within the st. john's area, and made anyone showing a covid-19 symptom eligible to receive testing. fitzgerald commented on the surge, explaining that "'i'm not trying to say that they did anything wrong; i just think that it's what got us to where we are, i'm not judging anybody; it's just what has gotten us here and what we need to change so that we can get ourselves out of here." fitzgerald also stated that health officials were sending out samples to be sequenced for sars-cov-2 variants. in-person voting for 18 ridings in the 2021 newfoundland and labrador general election was postponed indefinitely. on february 12, the province announced 50 new cases. later that night, fitzgerald announced that 19 samples sent to a laboratory in winnipeg had sequenced for lineage b.1.1.7 (the "uk variant"), and that all recent outbreaks would be assumed to have involved this strain. fitzgerald therefore declared a second lockdown with a province-wide rollback to alert level 5, including the closure of all non-essential businesses, and strict restrictions on gatherings. it was concurrently announced that due to the lockdown, all in-person voting for the 2021 general election would be cancelled, with the election being conducted exclusively with mail-in ballots—the first election to do so in canadian history. on february 24, the province announced its fifth covid-19-related death, its first since october 2020. fitzgerald stated that an update on provincial restrictions would be issued on february 26, but that "as long as the variant circulates outside our province, it will make its way back into our province. this means we are always at risk for another outbreak if we don't remain vigilant.". she also warned residents to not take the recent decline in cases as a "false sense of security". the province confirmed a sixth death and four new cases on february 27. on february 26, 2021, fitzgerald announced that due to community transmission being limited outside of the st. john's region (with only five presently-active cases being outside of the eastern region), the rest of the province outside of the avalon would revert to alert level 4 effective 12:01 a.m. on february 27. the avalon remained at alert level 5, and all alert levels would be re-evaluated in two weeks. on march 13, all levels were decreased by one, with the avalon downgraded to alert level 4, and the remainder of the province at alert level 3. on march 24, fitzgerald announced that the entire province would return to alert level 2 effective 12:01 a.m. on march 27, but with modifications in order to discourage excessive close contacts. most gatherings will be capped at 50 people, and households may form a social bubble with up to 20 close, consistent contacts. team sports leagues must obtain permission to resume competitive play by submitting proposals to the health authority. information on cases, changes, and deaths cases in newfoundland and labrador remained relatively low since the province emerged from their second lockdown caused by the alpha variant in february 2021, which prompted dr. fitzgerald to remove newfoundland and labrador's mask mandate on august 13, 2021. however, on september 18, 2021, dr. fitzgerald reintroduced the mask mandate citing concerns of the highly-contagious delta variant and the fourth wave worsening in other parts of the country. ed. however, on september 18, 2021, dr. fitzgerald reintroduced the mask mandate province-wide citing concerns of the delta variant in other parts of the country. on september 27, 2021, following an outbreak in central newfoundland, health officials announced their eighth new death; the first since february 24, 2021. the man was between the ages of 60–69 years of age. on september 28, 2021, health officials announced that newfoundland and labrador's participation in the atlantic bubble will be suspended on september 30, 2021, until further notice. this requires all travelers, regardless of which province you reside in, to submit the declaration form found on the government's website. the suspension is in response to the delta-driven fourth wave across the atlantic region, and the change in newfoundland and labrador's epidemiology curve. on october 1, 2021, newfoundland and labrador announced their ninth and tenth death; a male in the central health region and a female in the eastern health region, both age 70 years and older. health officials announced the province's eleventh death on october 8. a female in the central health region who was over the age of 70 years. on october 12, 2021, newfoundland and labrador announced 21 new covid-19 cases, 62 recoveries and two deaths over the thanksgiving long weekend. the two deaths were in the central health region and involved two males, one between 60 and 69 years of age and the other over the age of 70 years. the province announced their fourteenth and fifteenth deaths on october 18, 2021, raising the death toll to 15 since the start of the pandemic. on october 27, 2021, health officials announced 20 new covid-19 cases, nine recoveries, and one death, bringing the death total to 16 since march 2020. provincial health officials announced their seventeenth death on november 15, 2021. the man, aged 70 years or older, resided in the central health region. this is the first death in the province related to covid-19 since october 18, 2021, raising the death toll to 17. four new cases were announced on november 17, 2021, along with 13 recoveries, leaving 22 active cases; the lowest active case count in months. on november 22, 2021, health officials announced three new cases and 10 recoveries, leaving 12 active cases. the last time the province saw a low active case count was on august 18, 2021. health officials announced four new cases, two recoveries, and one new death on november 24, 2021. the new death increases the provincial death toll to eighteen. according to officials, the male was a resident in the central health region and was over the age of 70 years. newfoundland and labrador reported six new covid-19 cases and five recoveries on friday, november 26, 2021, leaving