Canada’s top public health doctor says the federal government is looking into flights arriving from India amid reports that a massive surge of COVID−19 cases is ravaging that country.
Chief public health officer Dr. Theresa Tam says Ottawa has generally opted for measures that are not country−specific, such as a pre−boarding test for COVID−19, tests on arrival and government−mandated quarantine.
But she says India could be a special case due to a "variant of interest" there that may be fuelling a massive outbreak of COVID−19.
India recorded nearly 300,000 new cases of COVID−19 on Wednesday alone, with 2,000 more deaths linked to the virus.
According to the federal government, there have been 35 flights from India with at least one case of COVID−19 that have arrived in Canada in the last two weeks.
Ontario’s government, for one, is "pleading" with Ottawa to ban travel from India and other hot−spot countries.
The provincial government says cases of COVID−19 are pouring in through international borders.
House leader Paul Calandra told question period that it’s critical that the federal Liberals act now to prevent more variants from infiltrating Canada.
Dr. Tam also says new information on COVID−19 and variants prompted the National Advisory Committee on Immunization to suddenly cancel its planned announcement on who should get the Oxford−AstraZeneca vaccine.
The panel, known as NACI for short, is made up of vaccine experts who volunteer their time to make non−binding advice on how vaccines should be used in Canada.
NACI was minutes away Tuesday afternoon from providing an update to its advice that AstraZeneca shouldn’t be given to people under the age of 55 but the planned briefing was called off.
Dr. Tam says it had nothing to do with the risk the vaccine may pose from rare blood clots, but the panel felt the new data on the virus and its variants of concern had to be taken into account.
It is not known when NACI will now deliver that update, but at least five provinces didn’t wait for the panel’s advice before lowering the age cutoff for the AstraZeneca vaccine.
British Columbia, Alberta, Manitoba and Ontario are all now giving it to people as young as 40 and in Quebec as young as 45.
