P.E.I. hospital treating multiple patients for suspected carbon monoxide poisoning

The Queen Elizabeth Hospital on Prince Edward Island was treating between five and 10 patients for suspected carbon monoxide poisoning, and asked people with non-urgent concerns to avoid the emergency department.

In a tweet sent Tuesday evening, Health PEI said the Charlottetown hospital had activated Code Orange and was responding to an incident.

“Please avoid the Emergency Department unless you have an urgent or critical concern,” the tweet read.

“Non-urgent patients can expect long wait times.”

An hour and a half later, just before 8 p.m. AT, the Code Orange was declared over.

According to the province, Code Orange activates protocols at the hospital so they can care for more patients on an emergency basis.

Prince Edward Island, along with much of Atlantic Canada, is still dealing with power outages and damages from post-tropical storm Fiona — forcing many to use generators.

More than 180,000 Atlantic Canadian homes and businesses were still without electricity by late Tuesday afternoon — about 61,000 of them in P.E.I.

During a news conference on Sunday, the province’s acting director of public safety said preliminary investigation suggested one person’s death on the island was attributed to generator issues.

— with a file from The Canadian Press