Legault calls on Ottawa to boost Trudeau airport testing
Legault government says Ottawa must keep travellers from bringing in COVID
The Legault government has joined Ontario Premier Doug Ford in calling on Ottawa to step up screening for COVID-19 at airports, as a new variant of the coronavirus prompts border closures.
In a statement Monday, the premier's office said the federal government must act quickly to impose such tests in order to avoid increasing pressure on Quebec's already overburdened health-care system.
“The federal government must ensure all necessary steps are taken to put in place measures in airports to ensure the community transmission is not increased as a result of travellers returning from foreign trips,” the statement said.
“We repeat: It is not time to travel to foreign countries. Stay home. The situation in Quebec is extremely fragile. We cannot tolerate people showing a casual lack of concern and afflict our health-care system further.”
The statement came shortly after Ford blasted the federal government for not moving faster on COVID-19 testing.
On Sunday, Ottawa banned all incoming flights from the U.K. for 72 hours due to a new manifestation of the novel coronavirus in that country.
Studies show the new variant is more transmissible than other strains.
No case of the new strain has been documented yet in Canada.
Ford said at a pandemic news conference that he is “very concerned” about the new variant and the fact that thousands of travellers are still arriving at airports.
“At minimum, we need to test air travellers when they arrive at the airport,” Ford said. “This is critical. And if (Ottawa) won't do it, we will do it ourselves if needed.”
The comments followed scenes of throngs of people in line at airports as citizens ignored requests to stay home for Christmas this year.
Anne- Sophie Hamel, director of corporate affairs and media relations for Aéroports de Montréal, said last week that 8,000 passengers per day were expected to come and go during the holidays.
The Quebec government's statement on Monday repeated that Quebecers returning from travel, regardless of the country they visited, must “follow the health rules to the letter, including the requirement to quarantine themselves for 14 days.”
In Montreal, Mayor Valérie Plante's office weighed in on the matter.
“We need to strengthen measures at the airport to ensure we do not go through the same situation as we did in the spring,” when people were returning from spring break travel, spokeswoman Geneviève Jutras said.
On Monday, Ontario reported 2,123 new cases of COVID-19. Ford announced a provincewide lockdown will begin at 12:01 a.m. on Dec. 26.
Quebec reported an additional 2,108 coronavirus cases and 30 more deaths.