TORONTO (AP) – The Canadian government said Wednesday that passengers must take the negative COVID-19 test three days before arriving in the country.
Intergovernmental Affairs Minister Dominic LeBlanc said the measure would be implemented in the next few days.
Canada already requires those entering the country to isolate themselves for 14 days and has already banned all flights from the UK because of the spread of the new variant of COVID-19 over there.
The decision was made a day after the Prime Minister of Canada’s largest province said he ordered his finance minister to end the Caribbean vacation he took at a time when the government is asking people to avoid unnecessary travel. because of the pandemic.
Ontario Prime Minister Doug Ford said on Wednesday that it is “unacceptable” that Finance Minister Rod Phillips went to spend the holiday on the French island of St. Barts.
“We will have a very difficult conversation when he comes back,” said Ford. “There can be no rules for elected and unelected people.”
Ford said Phillips “never told anyone” he was leaving, but Ford said he knew Phillips was out of the country “shortly after his arrival”.
“My mistake. I take full responsibility. At that time, I should have said ‘take your ass back to Ontario’ and I didn’t do that,” said Ford.
The finance minister’s Twitter account suggested he was in Ontario while in St. Barts. In a video posted on Christmas Eve, he was shown sitting by a fireplace with a gingerbread house and a small Christmas tree, drinking eggnog.
Phillips said he would be back immediately.
The opposition parties asked that Phillips be removed from the cabinet.
Phillips also traveled to Switzerland in August.
“Some Canadians are still traveling for non-essential reasons. This is deeply worrying. We must reiterate that now is not the time to travel, ”said Howard Njoo, Canada’s deputy director of public health, on Wednesday.
Ontario began a province-wide blockade on December 26 and Ford has blamed travelers for bringing the new coronavirus to the province.
The national government of Canada and the government of Ontario have repeatedly asked Canadians not to travel abroad during the pandemic.
The Ford government was already being criticized for interrupting vaccination operations during the holidays and for delaying a blockade across the province until the day after Christmas.
Ontario set a new daily case record on Wednesday at 2,923, with just over a third of them in the country’s largest city, Toronto.