COVID-19 pandemic in Prince Edward Island

The COVID-19 pandemic in Prince Edward Island is part of an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), an infectious disease caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). Up until January 14, 2022, Prince Edward Island was the only province/territory that did not have any deaths due to COVID-19.

On March 14, 2020, the first confirmed case in Prince Edward Island was announced, a woman in her 50s who had returned from a trip on a cruise ship on March 7.^[1]

An initial small surge in cases at the start of 2020 eventually petered out to zero active cases by May 2020.^[2] The province began to open up that summer, resulting in another small uptick in active cases, with no deaths. By the close of 2020, PEI withdrew from the Atlantic Bubble and eased some restrictions, resulting in a slow but steady rise in active cases. By May 2021, the island recorded its 200th confirmed case of infection. In December 2021, PEI was breaking its own daily records of confirmed infections, with active cases surpassing the 1000 mark by early January 2022. No Islander had yet lost their lives to the pandemic and PEI remained the only Canadian province with no known COVID-19 fatalities. However, on January 14, 2022, the first deaths related to COVID-19 in Prince Edward Island were reported, with fatalities rising sharply throughout the year. Despite the rising fatality rate, many health restrictions were abandoned in favor of bolstering the local economy. By the start of the 2022 tourist season, masking, social distancing, testing mandates and vaccine passports were eliminated.

As of October 4, 2022, Prince Edward Island has reported 52,047 confirmed cases of the virus and 62 deaths.^[3]