P.E.I. to maintain border screening for unvaccinated visitors until October

Health officials in Prince Edward Island say they’ll maintain targeted border screening, testing and self-isolation for unvaccinated travellers until at least the middle of October.

Chief medical officer of health Dr. Heather Morrison said today the border measures will remain a little longer to help support a safe return to school for children by keeping COVID-19 numbers low in the province.

She is reporting one new case of COVID-19 today, involving a person who travelled outside Atlantic Canada and who is a close contact of a previously reported infection. There are six active reported cases of COVID-19 in the province.

Morrison says she is in talks with the federal government about a pilot project for which parents of students would be given COVID-19 test kits to screen children showing symptoms of the novel coronavirus.

4:28 COVID-19 and Kids

The province released its back-to-school plan Monday with recommendations for continued mask use.

Morrison says that later this week the province will run a training exercise for principals, administrators and others in the education system about what to do should a COVID-19 outbreak occur in a school.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Aug. 24, 2021.