Canada's new COVID-19 testing requirement for international travellers has caused hundreds of people to miss flights in the first week of the program's rollout. Under the new restrictions, all passengers flying to Canada from another country must show proof of a negative COVID-19 test taken at most 72 hours prior to departure. Since the testing mandate went into effect on Jan. 7, WestJet says it has denied boarding to at least 385 guests because they did not meet the requirements. Similarly, Air Transat has denied boarding to at least 245 passengers for testing-related reasons since Jan. 7, a

Ontario's premier is defending his government's new stay-at-home order against criticism that the latest measure to fight COVID-19 is not clear. Doug Ford stressed that the measure means people should "use their best judgment" to determine if they need to leave their home as virus rates surge. Under the order that takes effect Thursday, Ontario residents will be required to stay at home except for essential activities such as accessing health care, shopping for groceries, or outdoor exercise. The government has also restricted hours of operation for non-essential retailers currently offering

Air Canada says it will cut 1,700 jobs as it scales down flights for the first quarter of 2021.The 25 per cent reduction in service will also affect 200 employees at Air Canada's Express carriers, the company said Wednesday morning. With the reduction, Air Canada's capacity in the first quarter of 2021 will be about 20 per cent of its capacity during the first quarter of 2019, the company says.Lucie Guillemette, Air Canada's executive vice president and chief commercial officer, said in a statement that increased travel restrictions by federal and provincial governments have had an immediate

The Ontario government is ordering residents to stay at home starting just after midnight Thursday morning. There are exceptions for essential activities such as accessing health care or shopping for groceries. Premier Doug Ford says he's also declaring another state of emergency effective immediately in response to surging COVID-19 infection rates.Ford announced the restrictions shortly after the province released new projections that show the virus is on track to overwhelm Ontario's health-care system. Ontario releases new modelling New modelling shows that without any changes, Ontario's he

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says the federal government has reached a deal with Pfizer to buy an extra 20 million doses of the vaccine it produced with its German partner BioNTech. He says that means Canada will receive 80 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines this year. He also says that between now and sometime between April and June, Canada will have enough doses to vaccinate up to 20 million people against the deadly coronavirus. Trudeau is also announcing the Canada-U. S. land border will remain closed to non-essential travel until at least Feb. 21. It's another 30-day extension to the re

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has conducted a small shuffle of his ministers before holding up later in the day for a cabinet retreat to plot strategy for the resumption of Parliament. The shuffle is due to the departure of Navdeep Bains, who stepped down as innovation minister Tuesday and is not intending to run again in the next election. In the first virtual swearing-in ceremony in Canadian history, Francois-Philippe Champagne shed his title as foreign minister to take up Bains' former role, while ex-transport minister Marc Garneau moved into Champagne's old job. Toronto-area MP Omar Algh

The latest figures from the Public Health Agency of Canada indicate that as of Sunday night, there have been 660,289 reported cases of COVID-19 since the outset of the pandemic, including 16,950 deaths. There were 84,567 active infections, with a daily average of 7,672 new cases across Canada from Jan. 1 to Jan. 7. During the same period, an average of 4,336 people with COVID-19 were being treated in hospital, including 811 in intensive care. The federal agency says COVID-19 is spreading rapidly among all ages groups. Although the infection rate remains highest for people aged 80 and older, w

Ontario Premier Doug Ford is threatening to extend the current lockdown and bring in more "extreme" measures if COVID-19 rates do not come down. The province has shattered another record for daily COVID-19 infections with a total of 4,249 new infections, including 450 from earlier this week. Ford warns the surging cases are stretching hospital capacity and that could lead to more illnesses and deaths. Ford says new projections that will be released next week are very concerning. Ontario's associate medical officer of health says the province may need to return to a stricter lockdown similar t

Maj.-Gen. Dany Fortin, the military commander leading vaccine logistics in Canada, says 171,600 doses of the Moderna vaccine are set to be delivered by the end of next week. He says 170,000 more are expected during the first week of February, then delivery will begin to scale up, with 250,000 doses by the end of next month and 1.24 million in March. As for the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, 208,650 doses will be delivered to the provinces on a weekly basis for the rest of January, and in February, that will increase to up to 367,000 doses per week. He says that will mean 1.4 million doses of the Pf