P.E.I. reports seven people in hospital due to COVID-19 Wednesday, one in ICU

Prince Edward Island's top doctor says, as of Wednesday, there are seven people in hospital due to COVID-19, with one person in intensive care.

As of Saturday, Jan. 8, 95.7 per cent of eligible Island residents aged 12 years and over have received at least one dose of COVID-19 vaccine and 92.4 per cent are fully vaccinated with two doses.

Forty-seven per cent of children aged five to 11 have received their first dose, while over 25,000 people have received their third dose of COVID-19 booster.

UPDATE ON OUTBREAKS

Public health on the island provided an update on several outbreaks that were announced on Tuesday.

Those updates include:

Miscouche Villa Community Care Facility

• No new positive cases of COVID-19
• Next round of resident and staff testing scheduled for Friday, Jan. 14

Garden Home Long Term Care Facility

• There is an outbreak at this facility and now two additional residents (four total) have tested positive for COVID-19
• Further testing is underway

 Early Learning and Child Care Centres

• One additional childcare centre (now a total of 10) have cases or outbreaks of COVID-19
• Eight centres closed Wednesday

Shelters and Outreach Services

• Five confirmed cases of COVID-19 related to this outbreak among individuals who regularly access shelters and outreach services in Charlottetown
• Test results are pending for others

Provincial Correctional Centre

• Two additional offenders have tested positive for COVID-19 (now a total of three) with no new positive cases of staff (still a total of three)

NEW CASES

P.E.I. also announced 230 new cases of COVID-19 Wednesday, bringing the total number of active infections to 1,922.

Public health says all of the new cases are still under investigation.

Over the last week, there has been an average of 191 cases per day on P.E.I.

To date, P.E.I. has reported 3,427 confirmed cases of COVID-19.

COVID-19 TESTING

In order to preserve the limited capacity of Health PEI testing clinics, health officials say testing will continue to be limited to the following individuals until further notice:

• symptomatic individuals
• close contacts of positive cases
• confirmatory tests for individuals who test preliminary positive at a point-of-entry
• confirmatory tests for individuals who test preliminary positive with a rapid antigen test

Anyone experiencing symptoms of COVID-19 should isolate until they are able to be tested and continue to isolate after being tested until a negative result is received.

Individuals who do not have symptoms do not require testing (unless in one of the above categories). Those who are presenting for testing related to travel (for example: day 4 tests) will be provided with at home rapid antigen tests, two tests to be taken 48 hours apart.