CHARLOTTETOWN, P.E.I. — Premier Dennis King says the state of emergency in Prince Edward Island has been extended until the end of May.
The original order, which was instituted by Minister of Justice and Public Safety Bloyce Thompson on April 16, was scheduled to expire midnight Wednesday.
King says the measure is still needed to allow the province to best contain points of entry to the province and to provide more resources to the chief public health office.
“And operations have been working very well and will need to continue for the foreseeable future,’’ the premier said during Wednesday’s briefing on the province’s ongoing measures to deal with the pandemic.
“Every case of COVID that we’ve had in this province has been travel-related and we know that remains one of our vulnerabilities as a province. So, we need to continue to be very vigilant with our screening process.’’
The premier adds a key component to the four-phase plan announced Tuesday to loosen coronavirus-related health restrictions is built around ongoing safety measures such allowing only essential travel to the province.
Chief public health officer Dr. Heather Morrison reiterated one of the biggest risks to P.E.I. is the importation of the virus. The plan for easing up restrictions, she explains, is based heavily on controlling points of entry.
Morrison suggests different scenarios could bring a halt to the easing of restrictions, which is set to begin May 1 with the first phase allowing non-urgent health-care services to recommence and some non-contact outdoor activities like golf to be given the go-ahead.
Concern would be created by widespread community transmission or facing a number of COVID-19 cases related to international travel that the province night not have the capacity to do good contact tracing for, due to the large number of contacts.
“So, there are a variety of things that we would be looking at,’’ says Morrison in making a call to halt easing of restrictions.
“So, not only the number of cases but our capacity to do contact tracing and also the capacity of the health system to respond to a large …increase in cases.’’
No new cases were announced Wednesday, leaving the province with 27 confirmed COVID-19 cases, all travel-related.
Morrison says the 27th case, which she announced Tuesday, is a Kings County man who is doing well and self-isolating.
Currently, 2,087 people are in self-isolation in P.E.I., including 590 essential workers. Self-isolation has been completed by 1,253 people.
Morrison says general “overarching guidance’’ will be released to support businesses, industries and sectors to get ready for easing of restrictions.
Guidelines on campgrounds will be coming soon.
“We need to remember that we are in a pandemic and to use the best judgment that we can, based on what we know about the virus and also about what we don’t know about the virus,’’ adds Morrison.
The premier also made clear students will not be returning to classrooms until the new school year.
He adds discussions are taking place to come up with a date for at least a one-day session of legislature with the expectation that all 27 MLAs can be safely gathered. Work is also underway to plan for a more broad session of legislature in the summer.
[email protected]
