3 new COVID-19 cases announced Thursday on P.E.I.

The P.E.I. Chief Public Health Office is reporting three new cases of COVID-19 on Thursday.

Two are related to travel outside the province and the otheris a close contact of a previously announced case.

One of the individuals is in their 60s, one is in their 30s and the other is in their 20s. There are currently 29 active cases in the province, and there have been 406 cases total.

Dr. Heather Morrison said community transmission seems likely amid the spike in new cases the Island has seen since mid-November.

"This is not the situation we want to be in at any time, but especially not as we enter the holiday season," she said in a release.

"COVID-19 is circulating in our province and there appears to be community transmission with not all of our cases linked to travel. Our high rate of vaccination is protecting us from experiencing serious illnesses and hospitalizations."

The province said Health P.E.I. clinics tested about 1,600 people on Wednesday, many of them children. The pop-up clinic in eastern Kings, which was set up amid the surge in cases in that region, tested close to 400 people.

Morrison said all the results currently available from that clinic have come back negative.

The testing clinic was closed Thursday due to the weather, but will reopen Friday at the Souris Hospital from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.