P.E.I. reports two more COVID-19 cases linked to school outbreak, active cases rise to record 37
Health officials in Prince Edward Island announced two additional cases of COVID-19 on Thursday night, both linked to the outbreak at a Charlottetown elementary school.
In a release issued Thursday night, P.E.I. chief public health officer Dr. Heather Morrison announced the two cases linked to the outbreak at West Royalty Elementary, both in children ages 10 to 19.
One of the new cases involves a student at École La-Belle-Cloche in Souris who attended school on Thursday. École La-Belle-Cloche will be closed on Friday, Sept. 17 as health officials conduct comprehensive contact tracing and the school is cleaned extensively.
The province says all schools in the Public Schools Branch (PSB) and Commission scolaire de langue français (CSLF) have moved to elevated risk enhanced public health measures which includes masking for grades four through twelve and cohorting.
“This most recent case at École La-Belle-Cloche is connected to the West Royalty Elementary School outbreak and all close contacts at École La-Belle-Cloche will be called by public health to provide isolation and testing instructions,” said Morrison in a news release.
“Public health staff will be working to identify all of the close contacts. As always, it is important that we all follow the basic public health measures, including hand hygiene, physical distancing and staying home when not feeling well and get tested if they have any symptoms of COVID-19, even mild ones.”
The province says students, teachers, and staff who are identified as close contacts will be contacted directly by public health for isolation and testing instructions. Close contacts of this case will be asked to get tested on Monday, Sept. 20 at the Charlottetown Testing Clinic (64 Park Street) between 8:00 am and 4:00 pm or at the Montague Testing Clinic (14 Rosedale Road) between 9:30 am – 2:00 pm.
All students and staff at École La-Belle-Cloche who are not identified as close contacts should monitor themselves for symptoms, and if they experience any symptoms get tested and self-isolate until they receive a negative result.
During a news update earlier Thursday afternoon, Morrison announced seven new cases, all involving close contacts of the outbreak at West Royalty Elementary.
Prince Edward Island currently has 37 active cases of COVID-19, the highest number of active cases in the province since the pandemic began, and has had a total of 270 positive cases.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
'They needed people inside Air Canada:' Police announce arrests in Pearson gold heist
Police say one former and one current employee of Air Canada are among the nine suspects that are facing charges in connection with the gold heist at Pearson International Airport last year.
House admonishes ArriveCan contractor in rare parliamentary show of power
MPs enacted an extraordinary, rarely used parliamentary power on Wednesday, summonsing an ArriveCan contractor to appear before the House of Commons where he was admonished publicly and forced to provide answers to the questions MPs said he'd previously evaded.
Leafs star Auston Matthews finishes season with 69 goals
Auston Matthews won't be joining the NHL's 70-goal club this season.
Trump lawyers say Stormy Daniels refused subpoena outside a Brooklyn bar, papers left 'at her feet'
Donald Trump's legal team says it tried serving Stormy Daniels a subpoena as she arrived for an event at a bar in Brooklyn last month, but the porn actor, who is expected to be a witness at the former president's criminal trial, refused to take it and walked away.
Why drivers in Eastern Canada could see big gas price spikes, and other Canadians won't
Drivers in Eastern Canada face a big increase in gas prices because of various factors, especially the higher cost of the summer blend, industry analysts say.
Doug Ford calls on Ontario Speaker to reverse Queen's Park keffiyeh ban
Ontario Premier Doug Ford is calling on Speaker Ted Arnott to reverse a ban on keffiyehs at Queen's Park, describing the move as “needlessly” divisive.
'A living nightmare': Winnipeg woman sentenced following campaign of harassment against man after online date
A Winnipeg woman was sentenced to house arrest after a single date with a man she met online culminated in her harassing him for years, and spurred false allegations which resulted in the innocent man being arrested three times.
Woman who pressured boyfriend to kill his ex in 2000s granted absences from prison
A woman who pressured her boyfriend into killing his teenage ex more than a decade ago will be allowed to leave prison for weeks at a time.
Customers disappointed after email listing $60K Tim Hortons prize sent in error
Several Tim Horton’s customers are feeling great disappointment after being told by the company that an email stating they won a boat worth nearly $60,000 was sent in error.