Number of N.L. COVID-19 patients in critical care rises to 8

Eight people in Newfoundland and Labrador are in critical caredue to COVID-19, according to the provincial Department of Health, up one from Thursday.

In total, 20 people are in the province's hospitals as a result of COVID-19, said the department in a media release Friday afternoon.

The department also reported 265 new cases of the virus: 155 in the Eastern Health region,53 in the Central Health region, 29 in the Labrador-GrenfellHealth region and 28 in the Western Health region.

Health officials also reported 297 recoveries Friday, dropping the number of known active cases to 2,478.

A total of 1,759 COVID-19 tests have been completed since Thursday, with a positivity rate of 15 per cent. The province has completed 478,068 tests since March 2020.

New QR codes in vaccine passport

The province also announced Friday that medicalexemptions and federal vaccination QR codes can now be stored in the NLVaxPass app.

People who have a medical exemption and a valid Medical Care Plan card will now be able to download a QR code to store in the VaxPass app, butthe code will be accepted only in Newfoundland and Labrador.

Anyone without a valid MCPcard can continue to use a signed letter showing a valid medical exemption.

International travellers from Newfoundland and Labrador can also create a new QR code in the app and use it in place ofthe PDF document currently being used.

The app will need to be updated, through its settings menu,to accommodate the change.

Read more from CBC Newfoundland and Labrador