by Jim Byers
Last updated: 2:31 PM ET, Wed January 6, 2021
Canada is ending its ban on flights coming in from the United Kingdom.
Canadian Transport Minister Marc Garneau confirmed the news today (Wednesday) during a press conference to address new COVID-19 testing rules that come into place at 12:01 a.m. Eastern time tomorrow (Thursday).
The new COVID-19 variant that caused the ban in the first place continues to spread, but Garneau said the new rules for Canada, which require all air passengers ages five and over to present a negative PRC test result with 72 hours of their scheduled departure for Canada, make it possible for Canada to end the UK ban.
"The ban on U.K. flights, which was going until midnight tonight, will lapse. It will no longer be applicable," the minister said.
"We have made that decision based on the fact that we have now put in place, since that original ban, a pre-departure testing protocol… so that will replace the ban that existed for the U.K. and it applies, of course, to all countries in the world from which flights may come to Canada."
The new testing rules have caused immense apprehension with passengers and within the airline and travel industries, as would-be flyers scramble to arrange tests or change flights to avoid the new rules.
Canadian government officials have said they hope the new regulations will help catch COVID-19 cases that could have otherwise entered the country.
Topics From This Article to Explore
