Canada has prolonged its ban on passenger flights from India and Pakistan by 30 days to June 21 as a part of a marketing campaign to battle COVID-19, Transport Minister Omar Alghabra mentioned on Friday.
Alghabra mentioned Canada had seen “a big discount” in coronavirus infections among arriving airline passengers since Ottawa first announced the bans on April 22 as the number of cases in India soared. The move does not affect cargo flights.
“These ongoing measures will remain in place to help protect Canadians and to manage the elevated risk of imported cases of COVID-19 and variants of concern,” he informed a briefing.
As vaccinations choose up throughout Canada, the variety of every day new circumstances has dropped by 25% since final week and it now averages round 5,000, deputy chief public well being officer Howard Njoo informed the briefing.
Canada has to date recorded a complete of 25,111 deaths from COVID-19 and greater than 1.3 million circumstances general.
The ban on Indian and Pakistani flights is a part of a collection of restrictions Canada has imposed to decrease the transmission of the virus, together with curbs on non-essential journey throughout the lengthy land border with the United States.
Canada mentioned on Thursday that the measure, first utilized in March 2020, could be prolonged by one other month to June 21. Government officers mentioned they had been in no hurry to open up journey throughout the border, citing the necessity to shield public well being..
Ontario, essentially the most populous of the ten provinces, introduced on Friday that it might start administering second doses of AstraZeneca Inc’s COVID-19 vaccine after earlier halting roll out attributable to issues about uncommon blood clots.
The province has tens of hundreds of AstraZeneca doses set to run out on the finish of May.
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