Justin Trudeau – WARMINGTON: Why allow flights to land from COVID hotspots?
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“That’s why, in addition to pre-departure testing, we’re asking the federal government to adopt mandatory testing upon arrival for all international travellers and to impose a temporary ban on flights coming from countries where new COVID-19 strains are being detected.”
Ford told the Toronto Sunit’s “absolutely critical” that “we have mandatory testing.” The premier noted that about 2.5% of the 8,000 passengers who had pre-flight COVID tests before landing in Toronto tested positive.
“You have 2.5% testing positive” coming in “that’s 750 people testing positive and that is unacceptable,” said Ford.
One has to wonder if this new strain of COVID-19 is even more contagious than the other one, and Canada is not able to vaccinate people for lack of supply, why are any foreign flights permitted at this time when the rest of the province is required to stay home?
You can’t go skiing here, get a legal haircut or work out in the gym, but you can fly in from India to attend college like Harpreet Kaur, who got off a 14-hour flight Tuesday. You can’t go to a movie or sit in a restaurant, but it’s possible to fly in from Islamabad like Muhammad Janjua did after three months of visiting his parents.
Great young people who are not in any way to blame for any of this. It’s not their fault the lines are blurred and borders closed on the ground but open through the skies.
But if we are fair and honest, the reasons for all the travel we witnessed at Pearson on Tuesday did not seem essential.