According to the latest reports, Canada has added another 4759 cases of COVID-19 on Friday as the federal government has imposed stricter rules on all incoming air travelers to the country.
Friday’s data push the country’s total caseload from the virus to 770469 of which over 695000 have since recovered. There are another 147 deaths related to COVID-19 that were reported on Friday, raising Canada’s death toll from the pandemic to 19,794.
Over 21860000 tests and 937000 vaccines have since been administered to date.
On Friday, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced a slow of new restrictions that are being aimed at reducing the o-essential travel in and out of the country, citing the risk of bringing back more infectious variants of COVID-19 from overseas.
The new rules include the mandatory PCR testing at the airports for all people returning to Canada and that after taking the test, the travelers would have to quarantine at the approved hotels, which could cost them more than $2000 out from the pocket, while they wait up to three days for the results of their tests.
Those who are tested positive would have to isolate at the government facilities, and those with negative results would be able to quarantine at home.
Trudeau who announced in front of Rideau Cottage on Friday said that with the challenges they are currently facing with the COVID-19, both there and abroad, they all agree that now is just not the time to be flying. By putting in place these tough measures now, they can all look forward to a better time, where they all can plan those vacations.
The measures also include a suspension of trips to the sunny destinations during the pandemic, with major airlines like Air Canada, WestJet, Sunwing, and Air Transat all agreeing to cancel flights to all the Caribbean destinations and Mexico, starting on Sunday.
According to Trudeau, the temporary suspension shall continue until at least April 30, who also added that the airlines would be making arrangements with their customers who are currently o a trip in these regions to organize their return flights.
Trudeau recently announced that Canada would be getting fewer doses of the Moderna vaccine in the next shipment than expected. According to him, 180000 doses of 78% of what was initially promised would be arriving next week.
The delay comes amidst the announcements of the Pfizer-BioNTech shipments being held, though Trudeau has said that the country was still on track to receive two million doses from Moderna by the end of March.
All the provinces have reported new cases of COVID-19 on Friday with Ontario announcing an increase of 1837 infections as well as 58 more deaths. In Atlantic Canada, New Brunswick reported the largest increase in new COVID19 cases. The Northwest Territories reported its first new cases in over a week after four more infections were found there on Friday.
