Toronto received 28 infected flights since Dec. 13

TORONTO— Just hours before Ottawa imposed a ban on flights from the U.K., an Air Canada plane touched down in Toronto carrying at least one infected passenger.

Information made available by Health Canada shows five flights from London Heathrow arrived in this country carrying passengers infected with COVID-19 between Dec. 13 and Dec. 20 — the day Transport Canada halted flights from britain after reports of a new, virulent COVID strain in that coun-try.

Air Canada 849 landed at Pearson airport on Dec. 20 just before 5:30 p.m., six-anda-half hours before the midnight cut-off.

The U.K. flight ban will last until at least Jan. 6. The prohibition doesn't include cargo flights or empty planes deadheading for flights originating in Canada.

While Health Canada doesn't indicate how many infected passengers were identified on each flight, they do indicate row ranges of where they may have sat.

AC849, which arrived in Toronto from Heathrow on Dec. 19, lists a range of eight rows, suggesting more than one infected passenger.

AC855, a London-to-vancouver flight on Dec.

19, lists rows 4 to 8 and 24 to 30, while the same Dec. 15 flight listed a range of six rows.

Other infected London-to-Toronto flights arrived Dec. 18 and 19.

Of the 28 Toronto-bound international COVID-19 flights since Dec. 13, London, Frankfurt and Bogota, Colombia saw the most with three each.

Mexico City and the Ethiopian capital of Addis Ababa each saw two, with Delhi, Sao Paulo, Manila, Paris and Amsterdam had one infected flight each.

Nine U.S. flights were also listed — three from chicago O'hare, two from airports in Florida, and one each from Washington Dulles, Detroit, Houston and Charlotte.