Hotel quarantine - 'at your own expense'

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¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Can't say you weren't warned.
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Fri., Jan. 29, 20212 min. read

Article was updated 3 hrs ago
/www.thestar.com/Fri., Jan. 29, 2021

International travellers will have to quarantine at their own expense while they await COVID-19 test results, Justin Trudeau says


Arriving international travellers in Canada will have to quarantine at a hotel at their own expense pending the result of a mandatory COVID-19 test, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced Friday.

Trudeau told reporters the mandatory testing regime for international arrivals at four Canadian airports will be “implemented as soon as possible, in the coming weeks.”

He said the wait for test results could take up to three days and the hotel stay could cost travellers up to $2,000.

At the same time, Trudeau announced that Canada’s main airlines have agreed “to suspend service to sun destinations” as of Sunday, until April 30.

Trudeau said that beginning next week, all international passengers flights must land at four airports, Vancouver, Toronto, Calgary and Montreal.

Once the mandatory testing regime is implemented, Trudeau said those in quarantine with negative results “will then be able to quarantine at home under significantly increased surveillance and enforcement.”

“Those with positive tests will be immediately required to quarantine in designated government facilities to make sure they’re not carrying variants of particular concern.”

The new travel measures come as more contagious variants of COVID-19 continue to spread around the world. Dozens of cases have already been identified in Canada, and a variant was to blame for a massive and deadly outbreak this month at a Barrie, Ont. long-term-care home.

Trudeau and his ministers have been saying for weeks that tougher travel measures were on the way. He confirmed last week that the mandatory 14-day hotel quarantine at the traveller’s expense was on the table.

Premiers had been voicing their frustration at the lack of action from Ottawa on tougher measures, and some were beginning to take matters into their own hands.

Manitoba this week joined the Atlantic Provinces in imposing a mandatory two-week quarantine on individuals entering from other provinces, including returning Manitobans.

And the Star reported Friday that Ontario Premier Doug Ford is about to mandate that arriving international travellers be tested for COVID-19 starting next week, beginning at Pearson International Airport and later at land-border crossings.

While Ottawa has repeatedly said that its travel measures were among the strictest in the world, experts said otherwise.

A petition submitted by a number of virologists, epidemiologists, doctors and public health officials had been urging the federal government, among other things, to more clearly define what is essential travel, cancel flights to holiday destinations, “strongly consider” designated quarantine facilities for returning travellers, and test all arriving travellers followed by two additional tests during the 14-day quarantine period.

The petition also called for the mandatory testing of the hundreds of thousands of truck drivers and other essential workers who are still allowed to cross the U.S.-Canada border while it remains closed to non-essential travel. Canada and the U.S. should also vaccinate those workers as part of a joint effort, the petition said.

The U.S. State Department hinted in a briefing with reporters this week that the new Biden administration is working on implementing further land-border measures.
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Get Florida on the list of no-travel and you'll see the covid rates fall sharply in Ontario and Quebec.