Premier Ford pushing to replace international travel ban with rapid testing

Despite skyrocketing numbers of COVID cases in Ontario, Premier Doug Ford is calling on the federal government to replace the plan that calls for 14 day quarantine measure for international travellers with a rapid COVID-19 test.

Ford made the comment yesterday, adding Ontario will move forward and implement the replacement if the federal government chooses not to.

Under the plan, international travellers receive a COVID-19 test upon entering Canada before going into quarantine.

If the test comes back negative, those travellers are allowed to leave quarantine but will have to take another test six or seven days after their initial arrival.

After Alberta implemented a similar plan in October, Ford said he would consider it after seeing how it worked out there.

Ford says he plans to “put people” in the province’s two largest airports in Toronto and Ottawa and at some border crossings to implement the rapid testing, and added that he hopes the federal government will support his plans.