COVID-19 on P.E.I.: What's happening Wednesday, Oct. 21

Summerside Journal-Pioneer to resume publishing as weekly newspaper

Image | Libby Osgood

Caption: When UPEI students have to be on campus, such as in this engineering lab, masks are part of the protocol. (Jane Robertson/CBC)

Summerside's Journal-Pioneer newspaper is returning as a weekly publication in early November after shutting down in the spring due to COVID-19, according to a story published on the paper's website.
WestJet says it will begin providing refunds to all its passengers whose flights were cancelled due to the pandemic.
The continued closure of the psychiatric unit at Charlottetown's Queen Elizabeth Hospital is unacceptable, says Green MLA Trish Altass. Psychiatric patients were sent home in March to make way for a potential influx of COVID-19 patients.
The pandemic was a central issue in the CBC-sponsored debate Tuesday evening between candidates in the District 10, Charlottetown-Winsloe byelection.
Island craft lovers won't be able to enjoy the annual Three Oaks Craft Fair this fall, but they will have a "COVID-friendly" alternative this weekend in Summerside.
P.E.I.'s retail sales took a big jump in August but they still have a way to go before they reach pre-pandemic levels.

Image | Eliot River Elementary School, October 2019

Caption: Eliot River Elementary School is one of three schools that will see improvements sooner due to pandemic-related federal infrastructure funding. (Isabella Zavarise/CBC)

Prince Edward Island construction companies are maintaining a brisk pace of work despite the pandemic, but say workers are getting harder to find all the time.
Expansion and capital improvements at three P.E.I. schools will be accelerated due to the federal government's new COVID-19 Resilience Stream infrastructure funding, the province said in a news release. Principals at the schools say they're thrilled.
There have been 64 confirmed cases of COVID-19 on P.E.I. Of those, 61 cases are considered recovered. There have been no hospitalizations or deaths, and there is no evidence of community spread.

Also in the news

  • P.E.I. Chief Public Health Officer Dr. Heather Morrison announced a new case of COVID-19 Tuesday: a woman in her 20s, a "rotational worker" who had travelled outside the Atlantic bubble for work purposes.
  • Morrison also warned Islanders not to believe everything they see about COVID-19 on social media networks, but to seek out legitimate sources of information.
  • Staff at the COVID-19 checkpoint in Borden-Carleton have called in the RCMP twice recently to deal with drivers they suspected were impaired.

Further resources

More COVID-19 stories from CBC P.E.I.