Travelers to PEI will be tested for COVID-19 at their borders starting Thursday | The Canadian News

Rising COVID-19 cases in Atlantic Canada and other parts of the country is leading Prince Edward Island to increase testing as points of entry, Public Health Director Dr. Heather Morrison said Tuesday.

Starting Thursday, anyone traveling to the province will be screened regardless of their vaccination status, including island residents returning home after traveling, Morrison told reporters.

“As PEI and other jurisdictions struggle to handle the Delta variant and the fourth wave of this pandemic, we must take steps to protect the islanders,” he said. He also recommended that travelers 12 years and older be tested again between the fourth and eighth day after entering the province.

School-age children under the age of 12 who return to PEI after traveling will also need to test negative for COVID-19 before they can return to school, Morrison said. Unvaccinated or partially vaccinated travelers, he added, will need to isolate themselves for eight days upon entry and then retest.

The province’s PEI pass, which allows entry to the island, will now only be issued to people who can demonstrate that they have withdrawn at least two weeks from their second dose of COVID-19 vaccine, he regrets.

“The changes announced today … are steps that will continue to help us limit importation, detect cases early and contain the transmission of COVID-19,” Morrison said.

Meanwhile, it reported two new COVID-19 cases on Tuesday, bringing the number of active cases in the province to nine. One case involved a close family contact for a previously reported infection related to an outbreak at West Royalty Elementary School in Charlottetown, and the other case involved a person in his 50s who recently traveled out of Atlantic Canada.

Morrison said that since August, 87 percent of the island’s cases have been identified as the Delta variant, adding that about 98 percent of the infections identified in the country in the last week have been the Delta mutation.

“The latest model from the Public Health Agency of Canada predicts that we will continue to see a resurgence and spread of the Delta variant well into the fall,” he said.

At the same time, last year, the province had recorded a total of 58 COVID-19 cases since the start of the pandemic, Morrison said. On the contrary, he added, the island has reported 63 cases in September 2021 alone.

“As we have seen in the last month, and similar to other jurisdictions, COVID-19 continues to be a threat to PEI,” he said.

This Canadian Press report was first published on September 28, 2021.

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