TORONTO – Premier Doug Ford has announced a new plan aimed at limiting the spread of new COVID-19 variants, warning they threaten to derail what was described as tentative progress from weeks of heightened restrictions.
A six-point plan set out Friday by the government will ramp up capacity to detect variants more quickly, tweak isolation policies, and require mandatory on-arrival testing of all international travellers arriving at Pearson Airport by Feb. 1, among other steps.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau had announced a similar policy to test international visitors earlier Friday, but Ford argued the province couldn’t afford to wait the several weeks expected before the federal plan is implemented.
“If these new strains take hold, the consequences could be dire,” Ford said. “The time for decisive action is now.”
Any international travellers refusing to take the mandatory tests will face fines of $750.
The premier expressed deep concern over the arrival of new variants of the virus, which evidence is suggesting could be both more contagious and more deathly. Ontario has detected 52 cases of the particularly concerning variant first discovered in the UK since Dec. 26.
COVID-19 tests will soon be screened for known variants, Ford announced. Provincial labs will begin that initiative Feb. 3, with the goal of screening all positive tests in the province.
Public Health Ontario will also beginning testing up to 10 per cent of positive tests using genomic sequencing to identify new and emerging variants, by Feb. 17.
A related plan will see Ontario work with tech company DNAstack to establish a "genomics databank" for use by public health authorities.
Chief medical officer of health Dr. David Williams raised the prospect the UK variant could become the dominant strain of COVID-19.
"That would certainly change the pressure on our Intensive Care Units," he said. "That's one of the main [reasons] to get these numbers down."
The new plan also includes some changes to contact tracing and isolation procedures. Asymptomatic contacts will now be asked to repeat testing on or after day 10 of their quarantine, while the entire household of any contacts and symptomatic individuals will be asked to stay home until the contact has a negative test.
One element of the plan involves maintaining public health measures, though the implications remained unclear. The province was still considering whether or not to extend provincial lockdown measures beyond Feb. 11, Ford said Friday.
