TORONTO (AP) – The Canadian government said on Wednesday that passengers must be tested negative for COVID-19 within three days of arriving in the country.
Intergovernmental Affairs Minister Dominic LeBlanc said the measure would be implemented in the next few days.
Canada is already asking those entering the country to isolate themselves for 14 days and has already banned all flights in the UK because of the new variant of COVID-19 that is spreading there.
The decision comes a day after the prime minister of Canada’s largest province said he had ordered his finance minister to end a Caribbean holiday he took at a time when the government is urging people to avoid non-essential travel. because of the pandemic.
Ontario Prime Minister Doug Ford said on Wednesday that it was “unacceptable” that Finance Minister Rod Phillips had gone to the French island of St. Louis. Barts for the holidays.
“We will have a very tough conversation when he returns,” Ford said. “There can be no rules for the chosen and the unelected.”
Ford said Phillips “never told anyone” he was leaving, but Ford said he knew Phillips left the country “shortly after he arrived.”
“My mistake. I take full responsibility. At that point, I should have said, ‘Bring your back to Ontario,’ and I didn’t do that,” Ford said.
The finance minister’s Twitter account suggested he was in Ontario while in St. Louis. Barts. In a video posted on Christmas Eve, he was shown sitting by a fireplace with a gingerbread house and a small Christmas tree and drinking eggs.
Phillips said he would return immediately.
Opposition parties called for Phillips to be removed from the cabinet.
Phillips also traveled to Switzerland in August.
“Some Canadians still travel 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 chief public health officer.
Ontario began a provincial blockade on December 26, and Ford blamed travelers for bringing the new coronavirus to the province.
The National Government of Canada and the Government of Ontario have repeatedly called on Canadians not to travel abroad during the pandemic.
The Ford government has already been criticized for stopping vaccination operations over the holidays and delaying the province-wide blockade until the day after Christmas.
Ontario set a new daily record for 2,923 cases on Wednesday, just over a third of them in the country’s largest city, Toronto.