Ontario asks for mandatory three-day hotel quarantines at land crossings

Ontario is asking the federal government to impose mandatory three-day quarantines in hotels for travellers entering Canada at land crossings.

Health Minister Christine Elliott and Solicitor General Sylvia Jones make the request in an effort to slow the spread of COVID-19 in the province.

Travellers arriving at Canada's international airports currently have to stay in a specially designated hotel for three days before completing a 14-day quarantine at home.

The province says there are reports of international travellers booking return flights into nearby American airports, taking a taxi to a United States-Canada land crossing, and walking or driving across the border.

Elliott and Jones say these reports are deeply troubling and are an “extreme risk” as deadly international variants of the novel coronavirus feed a third wave of the pandemic in Ontario.

Later today, Ontario's Long-Term Care COVID-19 Commission is to submit its final report to the provincial government. 

The commission has examined what went wrong in the province's response to the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic. 

As of Thursday, 3,768 long-term care residents have died of COVID-19 in Ontario. 

The commission interviewed a range of people and groups, from Long-Term Care Minister Merrilee Fullerton to doctors and personal support workers to family members of residents who were ill. 

The report is to include recommendations on how the province can protect long-term care homes from any future pandemics. 

The commission has already released two sets of interim recommendations.