The provincial government is introducing new restrictions as a precaution against the fast-spreading Omicron variant of COVID-19.
Areas of Central Newfoundland will move to Alert Level 3 as of midnight Sunday, where government says there is a concerning amount of spread. That includes Badger, Gander, Grand Falls-Windsor and Twillingate, with a more specific breakdown on the government’s COVID website.
The rest of the province remains in Level 2.
Meanwhile, there are new travel restrictions as of 3 p.m. on Tuesday, requiring five days of isolation upon arrival.
The news was announced during an impromptu and rare Sunday afternoon briefing.
Officials hope they will help stem the spread of the most transmissible variant of COVID to date.
To that end, there are now nine confirmed and 34 presumptive cases of Omicron in the province, with a total of 61 new cases of COVID reported on Sunday.