COVID and airports
Reports this morning say the provincial government is preparing to order that all international travellers arriving by air at Toronto’s Pearson Airport be tested for COVID-19.
CP-24 and the Toronto Star say Ontario’s chief medical officer of health, Doctor David Williams, is ready to issue the order, following complaints from Premier Doug Ford that the federal government has been slow to implement new controls, especially with more-contagious versions of the coronavirus now circulating.
Federal figures show that, between January 10th and the 23rd, 156 flights landed in Canada carrying people who tested positive for COVID-19…….half of those flights arrived in Toronto.
That’s despite the federal order that all passengers flying into Canada have proof that they had a negative COVID-19 test within 72 hours of their departure.
Air Transat grounding itself
Air Transat says government controls on flying, and the prospect of more restrictions to come, has led it to cancel the rest of its winter flights out of Toronto, effective today.
Passengers who had booked travel to the airline’s foreign destinations will receive a full refund.
Airline officials say the requirement that all passengers arriving in Canada have a negative COVID-19 test has severely affected bookings.
The airline’s flights out of Montreal will continue as scheduled.
Couple charged with fraud for vaccine
A B-C couple fined for flying into a remote community in the Yukon to get a COVID-19 vaccination will have to appear in court.
Rod and Ekaterina Baker were fined 11-hundred and 50 dollars each after being caught trying to pose as local motel employees in the small community of Beaver Creek.
However, Yukon’s Community Services Minister John Streicker says those tickets have been withdrawn, and charges re-laid, with a call that they attend court, in person, in Whitehorse in early May.
The change means the couple could face up to six months in jail if convicted.
Baker was the millionaire CEO of Great Canadian Gaming before he resigned on Sunday.