MONTREAL -- Starting at 1 p.m. Monday, the city of Montreal will ask travellers arriving from international destinations at Pierre Elliott Trudeau International Airport to self-isolate and take their temperature twice a day for two weeks.
Montreal Mayor Valerie Plante said the "important measures" are essential to slowing the spread of COVID-19.
In what Plante called "an unprecedented collaboration," the City of Montreal and Montreal's public health department will be deploying dozens of employees to Trudeau Airport in the coming days to inform travellers of the new measures.
Dr. Mylene Drouin, the head of Montreal's public health agency, likened the deployment of health workers to a second set of customs for travellers to pass through on their way home. Drouin added that while the measures are only recommendations at this point, she called them a "social responsibility."
Drouin reported that 11 people in Montreal have been diagnosed with COVID-19; two of those patients are in intensive care, she added.
Plante said she wished the federal government had acted earlier in providing such recommendations to returning travellers, but that she spoke to federal Transportation Minister Marc Garneau Sunday night and believes the federal government has been doing a good job combating the spread of COVID-19.
The governments of Canada and Quebec have asked people to cancel any non-essential trips abroad, in addition to suggesting that people who are currently out of the country return as soon as possible.
Nevertheless, the federal government has yet to take any measures to limit the number of foreign tourists crossing the border, something Quebec Premier François Legault has strongly disagreed with.
In addition, a multitude of people who have returned to Canada insist no one has told them what the government wants them to do to keep themselves and those around them safe.
The work of border officers at the airport technically falls under federal jurisdiction. However, the City of Montreal says it wants to make sure the request for voluntary 14-day isolation is well understood, as well as what people should do if they start showing symptoms of COVID-19.
