OTTAWA: Canada will step up its fight against COVID-19 by obliging citizens returning home overland from the United States to show they do not have COVID-19, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau stated on Tuesday.
Everyone arriving by air already has to show they tested negative within the previous 72 hours and this rule is being expanded to land crossings beginning on Feb 15, Trudeau stated.
Though non-essential travel between the two nations is banned, hundreds of thousands of Canadians have second homes in the USA, and Ottawa is obliged to permit them to return if they want. Individuals who arrive without test results will be fined C$3,000 (US$2,360).
The measure only affects around 5 percent of returning Canadians because the majority arrive by air.
“We’re using each tool within the toolbox to get us all by this disaster,” Trudeau informed reporters. Essential staff such as truck drivers are exempt from the new guidelines.
Canada has recorded a total of 20,835 deaths and 808,120 cases of COVID-19. Many provinces reimposed restrictions to combat a second wave of the coronavirus pandemic and as a result, the number of new everyday cases over the last week fell to around 3,500 from 8,000 in early January.
“That is gratifying progress,” chief medical officer Theresa Tam instructed reporters.
Trudeau also promised the supply of vaccines from Pfizer and Moderna would ramp up next week.
His Liberal government has been attacked by critics over the gradual pace of vaccinations, caused partly by a temporary reduction in supplies from Pfizer.
Separately, officials stated Canada would allow a sixth dose to be taken from every vial of Pfizer’s vaccine rather than the originally intended 5.
They informed reporters that six doses could be extracted provided a special syringe was used, mirroring moves taken by the USA and some European nations.
