Ford Confirms Ontario Has 36 Cases Of The B.1.617 Variant First Found In India
"I'm pleading with the federal government to stop all non-essential travel to Canada."
Premier Doug Ford announced that as of Friday, April 23, there were 36 confirmed B.1.617 cases in Ontario.
Ford suggested that international travel is driving cases of this variant, which was first detected in India and has since been reported in provinces including British Columbia and Quebec.
Editor's Choice: 13-Year-Old Brampton Girl Becomes One Of The Youngest Canadians To Die Of COVID-19
"These new variants didn't swim here," he tweeted. "I'm pleading with the federal government to stop all non-essential travel to Canada before new variants overwhelm our ICU's completely."
On Thursday, April 22, Canada banned all flights arriving from Pakistan and India for a duration of 30 days. Now, Ford has demanded even tighter restrictions and said repeatedly that the measures taken to secure Canada's borders have not been enough.
Brampton Mayor Patrick Brown echoed Ford's statement. "Stop all leisure air travel internationally and domestically," he tweeted on Friday. "The result of loose rules at the airport is more and more dangerous [with] variants."