Canada eyes travel restrictions from India due to massive COVID surge
Posted April 22, 2021 5:50 am.
Last Updated April 22, 2021 11:32 am.
With COVID-19 variants spreading like wildfire in countries like India and Brazil, the federal Conservatives are calling on the Trudeau government to pause international flights from these countries.
With signs saying “Secure The Border” plastered on a background, Conservative Leader Erin O’Toole says it’s time for the Trudeau government to temporarily suspend all flights from COVID-19 hotspots.
“This will buy us time to develop a clear set of parameters for identifying the risks of emerging variants and sharing this information clearly with Canadians,” said O’Toole.
The government generally believes that limiting travel from specific countries can only go so far, said Dr. Theresa Tam, Canada’s chief public health officer, but India may present a special case.
“We will be doing further analysis because it’s an emerging situation, not just because of the variant of interest at this point but because they have unfortunately a very massive resurgence in that country,” she said.
“We will be doing that risk assessment again, and using the data that we have now collected at the border to inform our next steps.”
A case involving the “variant of interest” that originated in India – known as the B. 1.617 variant – was detected in Quebec on Wednesday, west of the provincial capital.
But rather than banning travel from nations where variants have emerged, Tam said Canada has mostly opted to take a broader approach, instituting “layers of protection” against travellers from all countries.
She pointed to a pre-boarding test for COVID-19, tests on arrival, and government-mandated quarantine.
The Trudeau government is considering new travel restrictions but has long resisted targetting specific countries.
Instead, the feds have focused on general travel measures, such as mandatory testing before take-off and on arrival, quarantine hotels, and a mandatory two-week quarantine.
This comes ahead of a vaccine update from federal officials. So far, more than 13-million vaccines have been delivered to provinces and more than 10.7-million have been administered.
India reported a global record of more than 314,000 new infections Thursday as a grim coronavirus surge in the world’s second-most populous country has overwhelmed a fragile health care system.
Hospitals in India are now overflowing, and medical oxygen is in low supply. The effort to test and vaccinate residents is floundering, and bodies are piling up at morgues and crematoriums.
But even so, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi is urging states to avoid lockdowns by creating micro-containment zones to control outbreaks instead.
According to the Canadian government, there have been 35 flights from India with at least one case of COVID-19 that have arrived in Canada in the last two weeks.
RELATED: Ottawa police halts 24/7 presence at interprovincial checkpoints
Ontario’s government, for one, is “pleading” with Ottawa to ban travel from India.
The provincial government says cases of COVID-19 are pouring in through international borders.
House leader Paul Calandra said it’s critical that the federal Liberals act now to prevent more variants from infiltrating Canada.
“I am pleading with the prime minister to secure our borders so that we can get control of these international variants,” he said.
Canada has limited travel from some countries over the course of the pandemic.
In late December, the government barred flights arriving from the U.K. in a bid to prevent a contagious variant of COVID-19 that first emerged there from entering this country.
The ban lasted until early January, and ultimately, the B.1.1.7 variant took hold in Canada.
As of Tuesday, the federal government was reporting 67,417 cases of COVID-19 involving that variant.
With files from The Canadian Press
