OTTAWA – Canada announced a 30-day ban on all flights from India and Pakistan effective Thursday as COVID-19 cases continue surging in the two countries, reported Xinhua news agency.
“Given the higher number of cases of COVID-19 detected in air passengers arriving in Canada from India and Pakistan, Transport Canada is issuing a notice to airmen, or NOTAM, to halt direct passenger air traffic from those countries,” said Canadian Transport Minister Omar Alghabra at a joint press conference with other Canadian ministers on Thursday.
The minister said the ban is implemented as more passengers arrive in Canada with positive test results from those two South Asian countries.
If travellers departing from those two countries take an indirect route home, they will be required to show a negative PCR test at their last point of departure. Once they arrive in Canada, they will follow the standard protocols, unless exempt, including taking another test and booking a stay at a designated government hotel while they await their results.
Health Minister Patty Hajdu said the ban will allow Canada’s public health experts to collect more data about the epidemiology in those regions.
“I want to say that our hearts are with the citizens of India, Pakistan, indeed the whole region during these incredibly difficult times. In the meantime, we’ll continue to apply stringent testing and quarantine measures for all passengers arriving in Canada,” she said.
In a letter to Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau earlier on Thursday, Both Ontario Premier Doug Ford and Quebec Premier Francois Legault called on the Trudeau government to cut the number of international flights arriving in Canada and impose greater restrictions at the Canada-U.S. land border.
Also on Thursday, the House of Commons passed a motion to have the government immediately suspend non-essential passenger flights from countries with high rates of COVID-19 variants infections.
Over 300 thousand cases
India’s COVID-19 tally reached 15,930,965 on Thursday as a record single day spike of 314,835 new cases was recorded in the country, reported Xinhua.
This is the first time when over 300,000 cases were registered in a single day.
According to the figures released by the health ministry, as many as 2,104 deaths took place in the past 24 hours, taking the total death toll to 184,657.
There are still a total of 2,291,428 active cases in the country, with an increase of 133,890 active cases through Wednesday, as 13,454,880 people have been cured and discharged from hospitals so far across the country.
The COVID-19 figures continue to peak in the country every day, and the federal government has ruled out imposing a complete lockdown to contain the worsening situation.
While some school exams are cancelled, others have been postponed in the wake of COVID-19 situation. The capital Delhi has been put under a week-long lockdown till April 26.
The number of daily cases has been on the rise over the past few weeks. In January the number of daily cases in the country came down to below-10,000.
India kicked off a nationwide vaccination drive on Jan. 16. So far over 132 million vaccination doses (132,330,644) have been administered to the people across the country.
Meanwhile, the federal government has ramped up COVID-19 testing facilities, as over 272 million tests have been conducted so far.
