Mandatory COVID-19 screening for non-essential travellers will apply at Canada-U.S. land borders too, even though non-essential travel is currently prohibited.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said this morning that non-essential travellers will have to show a negative test at the land border with the U.S. He also said his government is "working to stand up additional testing requirements for land travel."
It is unclear at this time what those additional measures are.
Trudeau also announced today that international flights may only land at Vancouver, Montreal, Calgary and Toronto.
Travellers will require a pre-boarding test as well as a mandatory PCR test at the airport for people returning to Canada. Travellers may have to wait up to three days at an approved hotel for their test results at their own expense, which Trudeau expects will cost more than $2,000.
Those with negative results will have to quarantine at home with increased surveillance and enforcement, and those with positive results will have to quarantine at government-approved hotels.
In Chippewa County, which covers Sault Ste. Marie, Mich. and surrounding area, the COVID-19 data as of today states:
- 1,690 cumulative positives
- 1,365 cumulative recovered
- 22 cumulative deaths
- 5 cases currently hospitalized
Algoma Public Health has reminded residents that despite an improvement in Ontario's new COVID-19 cases, the rate of new cases in Chippewa County has resulted in an extension of its travel advisory, until at least Feb. 24.
