Chief Public Health Officer Dr. Heather Morrison announced a total of ten positive cases of COVID-19 in Prince Edward Island on Thursday
Three individuals are under the age of 10 years and six individuals are between the ages of 10 and 19 years. Those 9 cases are all associated with the outbreak at West Royalty Elementary School in Charlottetown and many of them initially tested negative and then tested positive on a second or subsequent test.
One of the cases is a student at École La-Belle-Cloche in Souris and attended school on Thursday. In order to allow public health to conduct comprehensive contact tracing, École La-Belle-Cloche will be closed on Friday, September 17. Extensive cleaning of the school will be completed over the weekend. All students, teachers, and staff who are identified as close contacts will be contacted directly by public health and given isolation and testing instructions. Close contacts of this case will be asked to get tested on Monday, September 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.
As for the outbreak at West Royalty Elementary School, a pop-up testing clinic will be set up at the school on Friday, September 17 from 1:30 pm to 5:30 pm.
All West Royalty Elementary School students who are not currently in self-isolation and do not have symptoms are asked to be tested on Friday at the school, even if they have previously tested negative:
- Children in grades 4 to 6 should go to the pop-up clinic at the school between 1:30 pm and 3:30 pm
- Children in grades K to 3 should go to the pop-up clinic at the school between 3:30 pm and 5:30 pm
- If there are multiple children in the same family, they can go to the clinic at the school together.
- Partially or unvaccinated staff can go to the clinic any time between 1:30 pm and 5:30 pm.
Any West Royalty Elementary students who are not currently in self-isolation but are experiencing symptoms should visit a Health PEI drop-in testing clinic.
Students who have been contacted by public health and are currently in self-isolation, should not go to the pop-up clinic. These students and their families should follow the direction they were given by public health.
A public update on the results of the school-wide testing will be provided on Saturday.
Children who attend West Royalty Elementary School should not attend any extracurricular activities until they have received a negative test at the pop-up clinic on Friday.
There is a public exposure notification related to one of the cases:
- Toys R Us (201 Buchanan Drive, Charlottetown) on Monday, September 13 between 3:30 pm and 4:00 pm
Anyone who was at this location during these times should monitor closely for symptoms and if any develop, visit a drop-in testing clinic.
The tenth case reported Thursday is unrelated to the outbreak, and involves an individual in their 60s who recently travelled outside Atlantic Canada. Contact tracing is complete, and the individual is self-isolating.
Prince Edward Island currently has 37 active cases of COVID-19 and has had 270 positive cases since the pandemic began.
