While Premier Doug Ford welcomed news from the federal government regarding new and more strict travel restrictions for Canadians, it will take several weeks before those measures are fully implemented.
Ford said the province is taking “immediate and decisive action” to stop the spread of new COVID-19 variants throughout the province. It is implementing a six-point plan that includes mandatory on-arrival testing of international travellers, enhanced screening and sequencing to identify the new variants, maintaining public health measures to keep people safe, strengthening case and contact management to track the spread of new cases, enhanced protections for vulnerable populations, and leveraging the latest data to inform public health decisions.
“If these new strains take hold, the consequences will be dire, and the sacrifices Ontarians are making will be for nothing,” Ford said. “The time for decisive action is now.”
Ontario's first COVID-19 UK variant case was confirmed last month and was due to international travel. Since then, 51 cases of the variant have been confirmed in the province.
Evidence shows that the UK variant could be up to 56-percent more transmissible. Recent evidence shows Ontarians' efforts to contain COVID-19 are working, with provincial trends in most key public health indicators trending down, said Ford.
However, recent modelling suggests that the UK variant and other new variants remain a significant threat to controlling the pandemic and could become the dominant strain of the virus in the province by March 2021, posing an increased threat to public health and hospital capacity.
“I’ve been calling for stronger measures at the border for months, and it’s great to see Prime Minister Trudeau listened to us,” Ford said.
Because the measures announced this morning by the federal government won’t take full effect for a few weeks, Ford said the province is releasing a six-point plan to stop the spread of COVID-19 and its variants.
“This plan will act as a first line of defence against new variants of this virus,” Ford said. “Mandatory testing will act as a stop gap until the new federal measures are fully in place. We can’t take any chances. We need to screen every single person coming into the country, and into Ontario.”
Ontario's six-point variant action plan enhances the existing co-ordinated and ongoing efforts of the province to detect, track, trace, and contain the spread of COVID-19. The plan includes:
Mandatory testing of travelers: To address the risks associated with variants of concern to the health of Ontarians, the Chief Medical Officer of Health is issuing a Section 22 order under Section 77.1 of the Health Protection and Promotion Act, mandating on-arrival testing for international travellers at Toronto Pearson International Airport effective at 12:01 a.m. on Feb. 1 and exploring additional testing measures at Pearson International Airport and land border crossings in the coming weeks.
Enhanced screening and sequencing: Led by Public Health Ontario, the provincial diagnostic lab network is ramping up capacity to screen all positive COVID-19 tests in Ontario for known variants within two to three days of initial processing. This new measure will take effect as of Feb. 3. Public Health Ontario (PHO) will also undertake and co-ordinate genomic sequencing efforts to identify new and emerging variants by sequencing up to 10 per cent of all positive tests by Feb. 17.
Maintain Public Health measures: Given the emerging evidence that the variants of concern are more transmissible and may cause more severe disease in some individuals, lifting of public health and workplace safety measures will not be considered at this time until more information on variant spread is known and overall trends in public health indicators improve. The declared provincial emergency and stay-at-home order were recently extended until Feb. 9.
Strengthen case and contact management: The provincial workforce will continue supporting public health units to ensure cases and contacts are reached as soon as possible and monitored through their quarantine period. All asymptomatic contacts will be asked to repeat testing on or after Day 10 of their quarantine, and the entire household of all contacts and symptomatic individuals will be asked to stay home until the contact has a negative test.
Enhancing protections for vulnerable populations: Dependent on supply from the federal government, the province will continue with the accelerated vaccination of residents in long-term care, high-risk retirement and First Nations elder care homes. The province is also introducing a provincial antigen screening program for the expansion of rapid testing in high priority settings, such as long-term care homes, retirement homes, essential workplaces, schools and congregate living settings.
Leveraging data: The province will work with a made-in-Ontario technology company DNAstack to immediately establish a genomics databank and real-time analytics dashboard to empower the province's public health officials and improve the government's planning related to pandemic response. This will enhance the province's capacity to identify known and emerging variants of COVID-19.
Any travellers refusing to be tested will be subject to a fine of at least $750.
“I don’t anticipate the vast majority will refuse that test,” said Solicitor General Sylvia Jones. “I’m hopeful that, as guests in our country, they will understand we are doing this to keep our citizens safe.”
Ontario continues to monitor the developing situation with the Public Health Agency of Canada and other jurisdictions to ensure coordinated, effective and shared efforts to protect and safeguard the public. It remains critically important that all Ontarians continue following the stay-at-home order and public health advice and measures to protect our communities and most vulnerable populations, and to stop the spread of COVID-19.
