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Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Bill Blair, Minister of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness, confirmed that the federal government is looking for additional measures at the Canadian border that will affect travel.
“We can take new measures that significantly impede your ability to return to Canada at any given time without warning,” Trudeau warned.
Mr Blair called for “nothing off the table” in terms of additional restrictions that may come into force in the future, with particular concern about the COVID-19 variant appearing in Canada.
Across the country, 31 cases of the B117 variant, initially detected in the United Kingdom, have been confirmed, in addition to three cases of the B1351 variant, which were originally identified in South Africa.
“We are looking at the steps needed to protect the Canadians,” Blair said.
“We are looking at a number of measures that could include further restrictions on international travel, additional detection measures, additional quarantine measures and enforcement measures to discourage and discourage people from undertaking unnecessary journeys.”
The Secretary of State for Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness added that there is a ‘gap’ with the US and that more work is being done on the new US government to establish more symmetry between the measures on both sides of the border.
“There’s honestly a gap because the Americans have previously placed no restriction on international flights entering the US,” Blair said. “It concerns us, because the restriction is on our land border, but not on air travel.”
Both Blair and Trudeau stressed that no one should travel at the moment, not even for the spring break, including travel within the country.
“No one should be taking a holiday abroad at the moment,” the prime minister said. “If you’re planning one, cancel it.”
‘If you’re thinking of traveling the country for a spring break, this is not the time. We need to spend the spring and mass vaccinations in the best shape possible. ”
Since the federal government implemented the COVID-19 test before departure earlier this month, at least 50,000 flight bookings have been canceled for all people staying with airline in Canada.
‘Challenging’ distribution of vaccines on the horizon
While the incidence of COVID-19 in Canada continues to rise, Trudeau spoke with Pfizer CEO and confirmed that the delivery of the Pfizer BioNTech vaccine for the next few weeks will be ‘challenging.’
That said, Drs. [Albert] “Bourla assured me that hundreds of thousands of doses of Pfizer will be delivered in the week of February 15 and the following weeks,” the prime minister said.
‘We work 24 hours to get as many vaccines in as quickly as possible. This is what I think of when I wake up in the morning, go to bed and every hour in between. ”
Dr. Theresa Tam, Canada’s chief public health officer, confirmed that Canada had seen 90 reports of adverse events following COVID-19 vaccinations, but stressed that it was not necessarily caused by the vaccine. A total of 26 were considered ‘severe’, including severe allergic reaction. None of the adverse events were unexpected.
Check out our COVID-19 topic page in Canada for the latest news, tips, health updates, cases and more.