Canada extends U.K. flight ban to Jan. 6 amid newly reported COVID-19 strain
Posted December 23, 2020 2:58 pm.
Last Updated December 23, 2020 4:17 pm.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has announced a two-week extension of the temporary suspension of passenger flights from the United Kingdom to Canada.
The travel ban, which was first announced Sunday, was initially set to expire in 72 hours and now stretches to January 6.
Trudeau said it’s an attempt to stop the new strain of COVID-19 from landing in this country, also taking a moment to defend Canada’s border control measures.
“In addition to the significant measures we already have in place, we acted quickly on additional travel restrictions in response to the situation in the United Kingdom,” he said.
“Our government temporarily suspended all commercial and passenger flights from the U.K. to Canada. Today I can announce that we will extend this temporary suspension of passenger flights … for another two weeks so we can prevent this new variant of COVID-19 of spreading to Canada.”
The premiers of Ontario and Quebec have both been critical of the federal government’s quarantine rules for air travellers, claiming people are ignoring them.
While the early science suggests the new variant is more transmissible than other strains, Health Canada said there’s nothing at this point suggesting that the mutations have any effect on symptom severity, antibody response or vaccine efficacy.
It added that there have been no recorded cases of the new strain in Canada.
