U.S. visitor tests positive for COVID-19

A United States citizen who entered Nova Scotia last month tested positive for COVID19 on Sunday, the provincial Health Department said.

The individual has been linked to three cases of COVID-19 on Prince Edward Island.

The government there has said a P.E.I. resident who visited Nova Scotia had been in close contact with someone who had recently travelled from the United States.

In an email Sunday, the Nova Scotia Health Department said public health officials made contact with the U.S. resident, who tested positive for COVID-19 earlier Sunday. Nova Scotia is in the process of conducting contact tracing for this person.

“This individual does not reside in Nova Scotia but was passing through our province from the United States to Prince Edward Island," said Dr. Robert Strang, Nova Scotia's chief public health officer, in the email.

"We will continue to work closely with our colleagues in P.E.I. and with the federal government on follow-up of these linked cases. As this individual is still within the 14-day isolation period required by the federal Quarantine Act, they are now being quarantined under federal authority in Nova Scotia. We will be able to provide further information as contact tracing work continues.”

The P.E.I. government reported Sunday that two new COVID-19 cases related to the American have been identified.

"The two additional cases are both men in their 20s and residents of PEI," the release said. "They are both close contacts of one of the cases reported yesterday, an individual who travelled to Nova Scotia and came in contact with someone from the United States. Contact tracing is now underway for the two new cases."

The microbiology lab at the QEII Health Sciences Centre conducted Nova Scotia 441 tests on Saturday and all turned out negative, the Health Department said in a news release Sunday.

There are three active cases in the province, all of which are travel-related, including a case reported Thursday involving a temporary foreign worker in the western health district.

There have been no new cases reported since Thursday.

Earlier Sunday, Nova Scotia reported that tests conducted Saturday had turned up no new positive cases.

To date, Nova Scotia has 54,910 negative test results, 1,064 positive COVID-19 cases and 63 deaths.

This was the first weekend of the Atlantic bubble, when Atlantic Canadians were allowed to visit other provinces in the region without having to self-isolate.

Anyone who has travelled outside of Atlantic Canada must self-isolate for 14 days, the release noted. And as always, any Nova Scotian who develops symptoms of acute respiratory illness should limit their contact with others until they feel better.