Charlottetown 
PEI is reintroducing the indoor mask mandate, the province announced on Wednesday.
This is following the outbreak of COVID-19 cases in Charlottetown area schools.
Effective 8:00 am on Friday, September 17, non-medical masks will be mandatory in indoor places.
Exemptions to mandatory masks include:
- children under the age of two years
- children under the age of five years who will not wear a mask
- valid medical reasons (such as active breathing problems)
- and anyone who cannot remove a mask with assistance.
Personal gatherings will also be limited to 20 people across PEI starting September 17th as the province is dealing with community transmission of COVID-19 in the Greater Charlottetown Area.
In addition to this, the province is also asking residents not to travel outside the province unless necessary.
School-aged children under the age of 12 years are now required to have a negative test before they return to school and be tested again on days four and eight, if they have been out of the province for more than 48 hours.
The province reported 5 new cases Wednesday.
Announcing the new restrictions, Chief Public Health Officer, Dr. Heather Morrisson said, “Despite our best efforts, we have not been able to link many of the recent cases to travel outside of the province, so we are dealing with community transmission of COVID-19 in the Greater Charlottetown Area. We are focused on managing this situation and will continue to conduct contact tracing, testing and isolation of cases and close contacts to contain the spread.”
“We want to keep businesses open, to be able to continue activities and to keep children in school. Although we are entering the fourth wave of this global pandemic, we want to live as normally as possible.”
