New Hotel Quarantine Rules For Canada Could Take a While Longer

New Hotel Quarantine Rules For Canada Could Take a While Longer

February 8, 2021 ctn_admin

It’s not official, but it looks like it may take a bit more time for those new hotel quarantine rules to come into effect in Canada.

The CBC reports that the federal government is asking hotels to submit proposals if they want to be used as official quarantine hotels. But submissions are open until Wednesday, Feb. 10, which means the new rules aren’t likely coming in the next few days.

Assuming even a dozen submissions for each of four cities where flights will be allowed to land, that would be 48 hotel proposals for the Trudeau government to look at. Considering how slow governments tend to be, it could still be a while before we see big “quarantine hotel” signs at Canadian airport properties.

The CBC says the Public Health Agency of Canada has posted criteria for quarantine hotels on a website. To qualify as a “listed hotel” for quarantines, a property must be near one of the four airports currently accepting international flights — in Montreal, Toronto, Calgary and Vancouver.

The hotels also must provide contactless meal delivery to rooms and free wireless internet access, set up a process for brief outdoor breaks (that’s at least a small consolation for those who have to quarantine) and report daily check-in and checkout numbers, as well as non-compliant guests, to the public health agency, the network said.

Ottawa has said it’s working on a plan that would require all arriving passengers to be tested for COVID-19 not only before they fly to Canada, which has been a requirement for more than a month, but also when they land. In addition, any one who flies into Canada must quarantine at a hotel for up three days (at an estimated cost of $2,000) while they wait for that arrival test result.

If someone tests negative, they’re supposed to be able to go home for the final 11 days of their quarantine period. If they test positive, Ottawa says they’ll be taken to a federally-approved quarantine property of some kind for those final 11 days of isolation.