Federal government imposing mandatory quarantine for returning travelers

CP24.com
March 26, 2020

The federal government will start enforcing 14-day quarantines on travellers returning to Canada to try to limit the spread of COVID-19.

Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland says “mandatory isolation” is needed to flatten the curve of the growth of the novel coronavirus in Canada.

The formal quarantines, which take effect at midnight tonight, come with the potential for fines or even arrests for people violating them.

International travel - initially from China, then Iran and South Korea, then Europe and now the United States - has continued to be a significant vector for the spread of the novel coronavirus.

And Canada's border with the U.S., while closed to non-essential travel, is still open to trade and commerce, as well as travel for cross-border workers or students with visas.

Freeland says those essential workers who are permitted to cross the Canada-U.S. border will not be subject to the mandatory quarantine.

The World Health Organization has warned that the U.S. is becoming the new epicentre of the global pandemic as the spread of COVID-19 continues to accelerate, particularly in and around New York, which is urging recent visitors to self-isolate at home.

Ontario health officials reported Tuesday that nearly 20 per cent of its active cases were the result of travel in the U.S.