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Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Bill Blair, Minister of Public Security and Emergency Preparedness, confirmed that the federal government is looking to place additional measures on the Canadian border that will impact travel.
“We could be introducing new measures that significantly impede your ability to return to Canada at any time without notice,” warned Trudeau.
Blair said that “nothing is out of the question” in terms of additional restrictions that may take effect in the future, with particular concerns about COVID-19 variants appearing in Canada.
Across the country, 31 cases of variant B117 were confirmed, initially detected in the United Kingdom, in addition to three cases of variant B1351, originally identified in South Africa.
“We are looking to take all necessary measures to protect Canadians,” said Blair.
“We are looking at a series of measures that may include more restrictions on international travel, additional tracking measures, additional quarantine measures and enforcement measures, in order to discourage and discourage people from making unnecessary travel.
The minister of public security and emergency preparedness added that there is a “loophole” with the US and more work is being done with the new US government to establish more symmetry between measures on both sides of the border.
“A loophole, frankly, exists because the Americans had not placed any restrictions on international flights arriving in the United States,” said Blair. “This worries us because this restriction is on our land border, but not on air travel.”
Both Blair and Trudeau emphasized that no one should travel now, even for spring break, including domestic travel.
“Nobody should take a vacation abroad now,” said the prime minister. “If you have a plan, cancel it.”
“If you were thinking of traveling around the country on spring break, now is not the time. We need to get to spring and mass vaccination in the best possible way. “
Since the federal government implemented the COVID-19 test before departure earlier this month, for all people arriving in Canada by air, at least 50,000 flight reservations have been canceled.
‘Challenging’ vaccine distribution on the horizon
Although COVID-19 cases continue to increase in Canada, Trudeau spoke with the Pfizer CEO and confirmed that deliveries of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine in the coming weeks “will be a challenge”.
“That said, Dr. [Albert] Bourla assured me that hundreds of thousands of doses of Pfizer will be delivered in the week of February 15 and in the weeks that follow, ”said the prime minister.
“We are working around the clock to get as many vaccines as we can, as quickly as possible. That’s what I’m thinking about when I wake up in the morning, when I go to bed and every hour in between. “
Dr. Theresa Tam, Canada’s director of public health, confirmed that Canada saw 90 reports of adverse events after the COVID-19 vaccination, but stressed that not all were necessarily caused by the vaccine. A total of 26 were considered “serious”, including severe allergic reaction. None of the adverse events were unexpected.
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