The federal government has extended travel restrictions to prevent COVID-19 infection from spreading further in Canada.
Canada is targeting to extend the restrictions on all kinds of non-US international travel till 21st next month. This extension of a month-long travel restriction was announced by Bill Blair, the Public Safety Minister today.
Blair took it to Twitter stating: “Our Government will never hesitate to take the strong action needed to keep Canadians safe from COVID-19 while maintaining essential trade with our international partners.”
Last week, Blair also announced that the restrictions imposed on US travelers are likely to be valid at least till 21st February. The US-Canada border was closed from March for non-essential travel. Such a decision was a joint effort of Ottawa and Washington and extended quite a few times.
To protect fellow Canadians from the COVID-19 pandemic, the federal government has also had an international travel restriction implemented from March to limit traveling to Canada. The restrictions prohibit most non-essential or discretionary travel to the country.
Canadian citizens and residents may, however, return to Canada and welcome immediate and extended family members among several other exemptions.
From January 7 this year, Canada has mandated that all international air travelers aged five or older share proof of their negative COVID-19 Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) done within 72 hours of the planned travel. This result of the test should be received before the passenger is permitted to board a flight to Canada.
Transport Canada had announced the pre-departure testing policy on the last day of 2020. These pre-departure test mandates will not be exempting any traveler from completing the 14-day quarantine phase. A quarantine period planning, therefore, needs to be prepared before their arrival in Canada to specify how it is going to be carried out.
Those travelers who are flying to Canada must use the ArriveCAN app to share their information with the country’s border service officers and know more about how to comply with measures undertaken at the border.
This app must be used by incoming travelers to carry out self-assessments daily and also to share the contact tracing information. This will be shared with territories and provinces to ensure that the quarantine measures are executed end-to-end.
Stringent quarantine and safety measures have been enforced all throughout Canada and those who refuse to follow those will have to pay a fine and/or be imprisoned. Recently, government officials and Canada Border Services Agency have suggested that controls and restrictions on travelers may be tightened even further.
On Tuesday, François Legault, Quebec Premier called on the federal government asking to ban all non-essential international flights while sharing a briefing on the COVID-19 pandemic.
Recent outbreaks of new variants of the COIVD-19 virus and the sudden, rapid increase in the number of cases across countries all over the world have contributed to such concerns. Additional control rules may also include the implementation of screening measures to execute planned border-control procedures.
The number of COVID-19 cases continues rising in parts of Canada, with a total of more than 723,920 cases per the report on January 20th. Alberta, Quebec, and British Columbia are expecting some hope in the form of efforts to curb or, at least, reduce the spread of the deadly infection, although the authorities in such provinces consider it too early to ease the current restrictions.
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