Travel-related infections spike on holiday destinations flights
TORONTO/CALGARY — Canadians who dipped south for the holidays are bringing back more than souvenirs.
Data posted online by Health Canada shows international flights carrying COVID-19-infected passengers from vacation hotspots spiked since Dec. 27 — with nearly half of the 35 flights that originated in Mexico departing from Cancun.
Canada saw 153 international arrivals with COVIDinfected passengers over the past two weeks — the furthest back Health Canada publishes COVID-19 travel data online.
Six of the infected flights originating in Cancun — and operated by Westjet, Sunwing and Air Canada — touched down in Montreal, while five landed in Calgary and two in Toronto.
Quintana Roo, the Mexican state home to tourist draws Cancun, Cozumel, Playa del Carmen and Akumal with a permanent population of 1.5 million, reported 16,400 active COVID-19 cases on Jan. 7. Numbers published in December by the Washington Post suggest visits by U.S. citizens to Cancun increased 23 per cent in 2020 over 2019.
Nine COVID-infected flights landed in Canada from Puerto Vallarta — seven in Calgary and one each in Vancouver and Edmonton — while seven Aeromexico flights from Mexico City landed in Vancouver since Dec. 27.
Other Mexican flights include Westjet 2379 from Huatulco to Calgary Jan. 6, and three consecutive instances of Westjet 2289 from Los Cabos to Calgary Jan.1 to Jan. 3.
Other infected flights from sun-splashed destinations include Air Transat 663 from Port-Au-Prince to Montreal on Jan 3; Air Transat 787 from Puerto Plata to Toronto on Dec. 28; three flights from Punta Cana to Toronto on Dec. 27, 28 and Jan. 2; Avianca 626 from San Salvador to Toronto; AC91 from Sao Paulo to Toronto on Dec. 30 and Jan. 3; Westjet 2703 from Montego Bay to Toronto; and two flights from Varadero to Toronto and Montreal.
Infected flights from U.S. tourism destinations included 11 from Phoenix, five from Fort Lauderdale, four from Los Angeles, two each from Fort Meyers, Orlando, San Francisco and Palm Springs, and one from Las Vegas and Kahului.
Other international arrivals with confirmed cases include Amsterdam (seven flights), Dallas (six), Paris and Dubai (five), and three each from Dublin, Delhi, Istanbul and Morocco.
Health Canada also recorded 136 domestic arrivals carrying COVID-19 — 32 landing in Vancouver, 18 in Toronto, 12 each in Calgary and Edmonton, seven in Halifax, six in Thunder Bay, five in Montreal, four in Charlottetown, and two in Hamilton.
Meanwhile, an online portal in Hawaii indicates that 2,824 people have jetted to the U.S. island state in the Pacific from Calgary International Airport since Dec. 1, despite Alberta Health continuing to advise against nonessential international travel.
More than 80 per cent of these travellers cited “pleasure/vacation” as their reason for the trip.
Calgary is not the only Canadian airport where tourists are flying out to Hawaii, with people departing from Vancouver, Edmonton and Toronto's Lester B. Pearson International, while others found connecting flights through American airports.
Another 2,058 travellers departed from Vancouver International directly to Hawaii, 21 from Lester B. Pearson International and 15 from Edmonton International.
The nearly 5,000 visitors from Canadian airports were but a small fraction of the 358,411 total visitors to the tropical locale within the same time frame. The vast majority of these tourists arrived from American airports, citing the reason for the trip as “pleasure/vacation.”
The Alberta Health website still reads: “Avoid non-essential travel outside Canada until further notice,” and reminds prospective tourists the Canada/U.S. border remains closed to non-essential travel.
Though travel is not recommended, Transport Canada raised the mandatory age for children wearing face masks on planes from two to six years old several weeks ago.
A mask still has to be brought onto the plane for the child, but longer have to wear it if they are “unable to tolerate wearing a face mask.”
The original mask mandate for planes was introduced by Transport Canada in April.