Canadian Premier Justin Trudeau
Justin Pierre James TrudeauBlinken makes initial calls while Biden’s Secretary of State for the Canadian Legislature votes to label Proud Boys a terrorist organization. announced new restrictions on international travel to the country on Friday.
Trudeau said at a news conference that Canada’s major airlines – Air Canada, West Jet, Sunwing and Air Transit – were suspending flights to all Caribbean destinations and Mexico from Sunday to April 30.
The airlines “make arrangements with customers currently traveling in these regions to organize their return flights,” Trudeau said.
In addition, from next week, international flights must land at one of four airports in the country – Vancouver, Calgary, Toronto and Montreal.
Trudeau said Canada will introduce mandatory PCR tests at the airport for travelers returning to the country in the coming weeks. Travelers will then have to quarantine for up to three days in an approved hotel while waiting for their results at their own expense.
Travelers who test negative will then be quarantined at home “under significantly increased supervision and enforcement.”
Those who test positive will have to quarantine under designated government facilities to ensure they do not have any of the new, more contagious variants of COVID-19.
Trudeau also said the country will soon require non-essential travelers to enter a negative COVID-19 test before crossing the border with the US, and he said Canada is working on additional test requirements for land travel.
Canada currently required air travelers must be negative before departing on international flights to Canada, and anyone entering the country must be quarantined for 14 days or segregated.
“With the challenges we are currently facing with COVID-19 both at home and abroad, we all agree that now is just not the time to fly,” Trudeau said.
There have been 770,427 coronavirus infections in Canada since the pandemic began, according to a Johns Hopkins University census, and more than 19,000 deaths.