Canada will require air travelers to offer a negative COVID-19 test to enter the country, officials announced Wednesday.
Travelers arriving by plane to Canada must complete a negative polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test within 72 hours of boarding, which Prime Minister Dominic LeBlanc said is likely to be completed within a week. Canadian Broadcasting Corporation reported.
Canada is currently mandating that those who enter the country for 14 days in quarantine, who Public Safety Minister Bill Blair said the new restrictions would not be affected during a press conference.
“This is not an alternative to quarantine,” Blair was quoted as saying by CBC. “It’s an extra layer.”
Blair also opposed calls from some to reduce the 14-day quarantine period, saying “at the moment we should only consider testing as an extra layer of defense against the disease,” he said. Yahoo News. He cites the mandate as Canada’s ‘most effective line of defense to keep the disease out of Canada’.
Disobedience to the quarantine period can result in up to six months in prison or up to $ 750,000 in fines.
Transport Minister Marc Garneau is expected to release more details on the test requirement on Thursday, the network said. Blair announced that Ottawa is investigating land-based testing of access to the country.
The country has also banned all flights from the UK amid the outbreak of a new COVID-19 strain that is expected to be more contagious, although Canada already confirmed cases of tension within its boundaries.
The restrictions also follow the condemnation of Ontario’s Prime Minister Doug Ford over his finance minister’s holiday to the French island of St. Petersburg. Barts during the holidays. Ford called the trip “unacceptable” because the government urged people to avoid non-essential travel, reports The Associated Press.