India flights arrive in Canada as Ontario tightens borders

Even as Ontario tightens its borders with Quebec and Manitoba, flights from Delhi continue to land at Pearson airport despite India’s daily COVID-19 infections surging to a record over the weekend — and the emergence of a “double mutant” variant.

A federal government website shows that from April 4 to April 16, there were 120 flights with a Covid-positive passenger or passengers aboard. Of those flights, 27 were from Delhi. India banned international flights last month, but Canada is one of 13 nations exempted.

When asked whether Canada was considering banning flights from India last week, Minister of Health Patty Hajdu said that the challenge with country-by-country approaches is that “COVID spreads in ways that we can see and ways that we can’t.”

On Friday, the U.K. will add India to its travel ban list.

Hong Kong also banned flights from India for two weeks, starting April 20.

Currently, passengers are required to present a recent negative COVID-19 test before boarding any flight to Canada and, upon their arrival, must submit to a second test. Those arriving in Canada by air must also quarantine for 14 days.

According to Hadju, there’s a “very low rate of importation” of the virus at the border.

India has 1.9 million active cases of COVID-19, 74,941 of which are in Delhi.

According to Bloomberg, the record-breaking number of cases is thought to be fuelled by a new variant called B.1.617.

India’s health and welfare ministry acknowledged the presence of the so-called “double mutant” at the end of March, but has yet to confirm whether it’s responsible for rising infections.

Quebec’s public health director, Dr. Horacio Arruda, said discussions are underway on the possibility of limiting interprovincial and international air travel in light of the variants.

As of Monday travellers from Manitoba and Quebec cannot enter Ontario unless they live or work in the province, are transporting goods, or are travelling for health or compassionate reasons or to exercise an Aboriginal treaty right.