BREAKING: Trudeau announces new COVID-19 international travel restrictions for Canada
- Michael Kras
- 29 Jan 2021
The federal government has announced new restrictions and protocols for international travel amid COVID-19 in an effort to mitigate spread of the virus through travellers into Canada.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau made the announcement on Friday afternoon that airlines Air Canada, WestJet, Sunwing, and Air Transat have agreed to suspend flights to all Caribbean destinations as well as Mexico beginning Sunday and staying in place until April 30th.
BREAKING: Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has announced all Canadian travellers returning from overseas will have to take a COVID-19 PCR test at the airport, and quarantine in a designated hotel for three days at their own expense while they await results.https://t.co/gPBy3mc63k
— CTV National News (@CTVNationalNews) January 29, 2021
“With the challenges we currently face with COVID-19, both here at home and abroad, we all agree that now is just not the time to be flying,” said Trudeau in his public address.
Additionally, beginning next week, all international passenger flights incoming to Canada will be required to land at one of four airports: Vancouver, Calgary, Toronto, and Montreal.
On top of the existing pre-boarding COVID-19 testing, the Canadian government will also be implementing mandatory testing at the airport for those returning to Canada, and will be requiring travellers to quarantine for three days at an approved hotel at the traveller’s own expense – at a cost expected to be greater than $2,000 – as they await their test results.
Those with negative test results will then be able to quarantine for 14 days at home with increased surveillance and enforcement, and those with positive tests will be required to quarantine in a designated government facility to ensure they’re not carrying any of the new, more threatening viral variants of COVID-19.
In the coming weeks, non-essential travellers will also be required to show a negative COVID-19 test before entering the country at Canada-USA land border.
The new measures also come in hopes of discouraging non-essential travel outside of Canada, potentially contributing further to the spread of COVID-19 and its emerging mutations.
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