P.E.I. opens to vaccinated Atlantic Canadians; 6,000 travellers expected Sunday

BORDEN-CARLETON, P.E.I. -

With no active cases of COVID-19, Prince Edward Island will officially open to all vaccinated Atlantic Canadians as of midnight Sunday.

The province encourages visitors to apply for a P.E.I. Pass before arriving, and says it’s received over 50,000 applications so far. About 26,000 have been approved.

Staff are prioritizing dates of travel and all passes up until June 29 have been approved.

"I think there's a very limited number of P.E.I. Passes rejected because our staff will reach out to the applicant and collect any information that's missing so as long as they're able to provide that additional information there would be no reason why we would deny their pass," said Ryan Neale, manager of environmental health within P.E.I.’s chief public health office.

Although windy and overcast, hundreds of RV’s, campers, trucks and cars lined up at the base of the Confederation Bridge Sunday morning. Each person must undergo a rapid test and will get a phone call within two hours if they’re a presumptive positive.

Modified rules are in place for those who are not vaccinated.

"If a person isn't vaccinated then that typically means that person is going to have to isolate for eight days with a test upon entry and a test on day eight to get out of isolation," Neale said.

Lone Oak Brewing owner Jared Murphy says it’s been "an interesting year and a half to say the least."

"When you close that bridge and you don’t see those thousands of cars travelling the bridge on a weekly basis, it’s not what you expect in Borden-Carleton when we opened a year and a half ago," he said.

Murphy says many Island businesses are looking forward to seeing the traffic flow once again.

"Now that we see the traffic coming and we see people that are coming with smiles on their faces to enter P.E.I., it’s just really exciting," says Murphy.