The federal government will force incoming international travellers to quarantine in hotels for at least 3 days and suspend all travel to Caribbean destinations in a bid to narrow the chance more coronavirus variants enter the country.
Trudeau said that among other measures, all arrivals to Canadian airports will have to pay out of pocket to quarantine in a hotel before being allowed to circulate freely in the country.
All arrivals will also have to undergo PCR COVID-19 testing and then isolate in “an approved hotel” for up to three days while they wait for their result.
Trudeau said the cost of this hotel quarantine stay will be “more than $2,000” per traveller.
Those who test negative will then be allowed to return to their home or other final destination and complete the rest of a 14-day quarantine under “increased surveillance.”
Positive cases will have to stay in hotels until they recover.
Trudeau said they hope to have testing and quarantine functions up and running in the next several weeks.
Additionally, all flights to and from vacation destinations in the Caribbean and Mexico will stop as of Sunday and remain suspended until at least April 30, Trudeau said.
“Now is just not the time to be flying,” Trudeau said.
“We can look forward to a better time when we can all plan those vacations.”
Trudeau said the four air carrier that carry passengers to the Caribbean and Mexico, Westjet, Air Canada, Sunwing and Air Transat, are cooperating with the travel restrictions.
All incoming foreign flights will now only be permitted to land in four locations; Vancouver, Toronto, Montreal and Calgary, where testing and hotel quarantine capabilities will be set up.
All incoming essential travellers at Canada’s land borders with the United States will also soon have to present a negative result from a PCR test before being allowed entry.
International travel brought the variants to Canada, from locales including United Kingdom, Denmark, South Africa and Brazil.
“Just one case of the variant that comes in could cause significant challenges,” Trudeau said, referencing the outbreak of B.1.1.7 coronavirus at a Barrie long-term care home that has so far killed at least 50 people.
It is extremely low the number of cases that are traced back to international travel, but it is not zero,” Trudeau said.
Earlier this month, the federal government required all incoming travellers to present proof of a negative PCR COVID-19 test completed within the past 72 hours.
Incoming travellers excluding cross-border workers and truckers have been required to quarantine for 14 days upon arrival to Canada since last March.
Other countries including Australia and New Zealand have been using hotel isolation periods for the entire length of the pandemic.
This content was originally published here.
