I knew something was wrong. But I didn’t expect this. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in the U.S. this week moved France and Portugal to level four, the highest risk category on its travel health notices website page. As of Tuesday, the CDC travel site lists France and Portugal in level four, which indicates a “very high” level of COVID-19. The other three levels used by the CDC are “high,” “moderate,” and “low.” The Canadian government travel advisory site has four categories, “avoid all travel, ” “avoid non-essential travel,” “exercise a high degree of caution,” and “exercise normal Read more
Canada
The government of Canada announced new COVID-19 testing rules for most Canadian airports on Tuesday of last week. Six days later, we still don’t know what’s really happening. The Trudeau government announced at the time that all passengers flying into Canada from destinations other than the United States would have to be tested upon arrival. Officials who said they were worried about the Omicron variant, said travellers will have to isolate while they wait for their results, and that those results might take three days. Those tests are in addition to the requirement that anyone flying to Canada show a Read more
NIAGARA FALLS, ONTARIO – The Niagara region has a reputation for great food and fabulous wine. A weekend visit in September hammered the point home in tasty fashion. One of the top places to check out, especially given this worldwide talk of a maple syrup shortage, is the Maple Trail at Maple Leaf Place, just a minute or two north of the Falls on the Niagara Parkway. It’s a lovely, bright shop with folks who know just about everything you can imagine about maple syrup. For example, did you know that 71% of the world’s production of the sweet stuff Read more
New rules for anyone flying to the United States begin in a few hours. The U.S. says that passengers on any flights that depart for the U.S. after Monday, December 6 at 12:01 a.m. Eastern Time (which could be interpreted as 9:01 p.m. December 5, today, for flights departing in the Pacific time zone) must show a negative COVID-19 test taken either the day of their flight or the day before. That goes for doubly vaccinated travellers, as well. Contrary to some published reports, it’s not a 24-hour window. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention site says anyone flying Read more
I like to give folks the benefit of the doubt. But I really am wondering who’s in charge in Ottawa these days. If you read today’s Globe and Mail, you’ll find a startling story in which federal Health Minister Jean-Yves Duclos warns Canadians flying home from any country other than the U.S. that they have to isolate while they await the results of the Trudeau government’s new requirement for on-arrival COVID testing. He’s been saying that for days, so nothing unusual there. But the Globe story goes on to say that “neither he (Duclos) nor Chief Public Health Officer Theresa Read more
