34 international flights have landed in Canada with COVID-19 over the past two weeks
Toronto may be getting a handle on community-transmitted cases of COVID-19, or so the data suggests, but that doesn't mean that the virus is anywhere close to under our control.
New confirmed cases of COVID-19 continue to enter Canada, or enter Ontario from other provinces by plane nearly every day.
A non-exhaustive database of "locations where you may have been exposed to COVID-19" is currently being maintained by the federal government based on information from provincial, territorial and international health authorities.
As of July 30, it shows that 34 international flights have landed in Canada with cases of the virus aboard since July 15.
Another six flights from within the country — two from Vancouver and four from Montreal — have landed at Toronto's Pearson International Airport over the past two weeks (which is as far back as the records are ever displayed.)
The most-recent entry for Pearson is an international flight from New Delhi to Toronto.
Air India Flight AI187 landed in Toronto on July 25. The Canadian government is warning all passengers aboard that flight, particularly those in rows 38 to 45, that they may have been exposed to the 2019 novel coronavirus.
This, just one day after an Air Canada flight from Fort Lauderdale, Florida, landed in Toronto with confirmed cases of COVID-19 aboard.
Canada's borders were closed to all non-essential travellers on March 18 and citizens in high-risk countries were repatriated.
International border closures remain in place today, as do mandatory 14-day quarantine orders for anyone returning home from abroad, but a series of exemptions mean that flights are still going into and out of Canada from all over the globe.
Canadian citizens, permanent residents, the immediate family members of Canadian citizens or permanent residents, and some other foreign nationals (including U.S. citizens) are currently allowed to come to Canada for non-essential reasons, if eligible.
A full list of flights on which passengers may have been exposed to the virus is available here, but only includes information recorded after July 15.
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