OTTAWA -- Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says the new measure will kick in Feb. 15, the latest move to keep COVID-19 from spreading within Canada from people who travelled outside it.
That is particularly relevant with multiple, more contagious variants of the novel coronavirus now circling, many of them already within Canada.
The government began requiring all people arriving in Canada by air to show a negative PCR-based COVID-19 test in early January. But more people are coming into the country in a vehicle than on an airplane.
The latest statistics from the Canada Border Services Agency show that since the end of March 2.9 million people, excluding truck drivers, entered through a land border crossing, while 2.4 million arrived by airplane.
Trudeau said the federal government cannot prevent Canadians from returning to the country at a land border, even without a test, but if they don't have the required test they can be fined up to $3,000.
- with files from CTV News -