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Summary

50+ Toronto Flights Have Had COVID-19 Cases In August & We're Only Halfway Through

Flying to or from Pearson is still a pretty big risk right now. 😲
Contributor

Things may be opening back up slowly but surely, but you might not want to rush to the airport quite yet. We are only just over halfway into August, but Pearson Airport has already reported more than 50 Toronto flights with COVID-19 cases confirmed. This includes both domestic and international flights coming into or leaving YYZ.

Since August 1, a little over two weeks ago, 29 domestic flights and 25 international with confirmed cases of the virus have begun or ended at Pearson.

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The Government of Canada website provides information on locations with potential COVID-19 exposure, including all flights that come into or leave through Canada.

Even just taking Toronto into account, the list right now is comprehensive and pretty alarming, with a whole bunch of flights having confirmed cases.

The site also lists, where known, which rows within the plane could have experienced exposure as a result of the confirmed case.

If you’ve taken a flight in or out of Canada recently, it might be worth taking a look.

The flights originate from a variety of locations, with some coming in from as far as the Middle East, Europe, and Africa.

The news comes after Pearson has implemented its new Healthy Airport program, ensuring travellers that it will keep them safe while at the airport.

The program includes mandatory mask usage, restricting airport access to travellers and employees only, and implementing social distancing measures. Most recently, the airport introduced mandatory temperature checks.

Despite the U.S.-Canada border closure, which was just extended for another month until at least September 21, four of the international flights coming into Toronto were from the States.

The border closure has remained a hot topic for both Canadians and Americans and it remains unknown when it will reopen.

However, Canada’s top doctor, Theresa Tam, suggested that it will still be a long time before we can expect a reopening.

The most common domestic route with exposure is currently between the major airports in Toronto and Vancouver. This makes sense, as they are the two largest urban areas in the country. 

Meanwhile, the most common international route with exposure is currently between Toronto and Germany, of which we saw five in August, all departing from Frankfurt.

If you’ve travelled within Canada, or internationally, you may want to take a look at this list to ensure that you haven’t been exposed.

Explore this list   👀

    • Abby Neufeld was a writer at Narcity Canada. She received her Bachelor of Arts in English and Professional Communications at the University of Victoria. Her past work has been published in The Toronto Star, Bitch Media, Canadian Dimension, This Magazine, and more. In 2019, Abby co-founded The New Twenties, an environmentally-focused literary and arts magazine.

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