COVID-19 cases found in 1,000 flights in Canada since February

OTTAWA - Nearly 1,000 flights in Canada have carried at least one COVID-19-positive passenger since February, according to CTV News Thursday.

More than 370 domestic flights and nearly 600 international flights had at least one passenger who tested positive for COVID-19.

From Feb 4 to Aug 24 this year, 973 flights in total flew into or within Canada with passengers infected with the coronavirus on board.

The last flight known to carry a COVID-19 case arrived in Toronto on Sunday from Edmonton in the Alberta province.

Early Thursday, Canadian Transport Minister Marc Garneau said the government is taking a very serious and layered approach to minimize the risk of passengers bringing the novel coronavirus into Canada.

"Those measures include, when somebody is traveling from abroad ... screening questions, temperature measurements, the fact that they must wear masks," Garneau said.

"All of those are measures that are designed to minimize the possibility of bringing anybody who's infected into the country and then transmitting it while they're on the aircraft," the minister added.

A total of 129,923 COVID-19 cases have been reported nationwide with 9,135 deaths, the Public Health Agency of Canada said on Thursday.

Labs across Canada tested a daily average of 46,000 people over the past week with 0.9 percent of them testing positive. A daily average of 501 new cases has been reported during the last seven days, said the agency.