When Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said that stricter travel restrictions were coming, he was not kidding.
As of Friday morning, Trudeau announced that all travellers coming into Canada must do a mandatory hotel quarantine, while awaiting results from a negative COVID-19 test.
The hotel stay will come at the traveller’s expense and based on how long they will need to quarantine could cost approximately $2,000. The new rule will take effect on February 22, 2021.
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Upon receiving a negative test result, they can finish their 14-day quarantine at home. However, he added that the government is stepping up surveillance of all quarantines.
There is More Than Just A Hotel Quarantine
Trudeau is also taking more measures beyond just the self-paid hotel quarantine and increased surveillance.
He’s announced that he is having major airlines cancel flights to Caribbean destinations and Mexico starting this Sunday and continuing to April 30. This includes the following airlines: Air Canada, WestJet, Sunwing and Air Transat.
While proof of negative test results are required prior to boarding a flight into Canada, Trudeau says the same will happen at land borders too.
In coming weeks, Canada will be working to set up additional testing at U.S. land borders for any non-essential travellers.
Why The Enhanced Measures?
While inbound travel restrictions have been in place since March of 2020 and all travellers have been required to quarantine for 14-days, there have been exceptions.
Recently the Canada Border Services Agency revealed that despite travel restrictions more than 30,000 foreign nationals have tried to come into Canada and more than 6.3 million travellers who have entered Canada since the start of the pandemic were not required to quarantine.
Due to the number of those that are skipping quarantine, and the scare of the variant on the rise, Trudeau said, “by putting in place these tough measures now, we can look forward to a better time, when we can all plan those vacations.”
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