• Canada will suspend travel to traditional sun and sand destinations for tourists, including Mexico and the Caribbean.
  • The new measure begins on Sunday, January 31 and will remain in place until Friday, April 30.

Taking further action to combat the COVID-19 pandemic, the Government of Canada reported that it had reached an agreement with four airlines (Air Canada, Air Transat, Sunwing and WestJet) to suspend flights to traditional sun and beach tourist destinations, including Mexico and the Caribbean.

The measure will be in effect temporarily, from January 31 until April 30. The only airports open to international flights will be Vancouver, Calgary, Toronto and Montreal.

In addition, in the near future (date to be confirmed), all passengers arriving in Canada will be required to have a mandatory Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) test on arrival and wait for their results at an approved hotel.

Travelers will have to cover the cost of up to three days at the hotel, which could be as much as 2,000 Canadian dollars. Anyone who receives a positive PCR test result will have to quarantine for 14 days in a government facility.

It is important to remember that to travel to Canada you must also present a negative test result before boarding your flight there.  The negative PCR test must have been done within 72 hours of the flight to Canada and must be presented to the airline before boarding.

In addition, all passengers must quarantine for the 14 days required by the Canadian authorities. All passengers' quarantine plans will be reviewed by an Canadian official and, if not appropriate, they will be required to quarantine in a federal quarantine facility.

The Government of Canada warned that it is is continuing to intensify its monitoring to ensure that travelers comply with the mandatory quarantine period. Therefore, all travelers must use the ArriveCAN tool: https://www.canada.ca/en/public-health/services/diseases/coronavirus-disease-covid-19/arrivecan.html .

Violating any of the requirements put in place by the Canadian government to break the chain of COVID-19 infection is a crime with penalties of up to six months in prison and/or fines of 750,000 Canadian dollars.

The Government of Mexico hopes that the most recent measure announced by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau can be lifted as soon as possible in order to prevent a deep economic crisis in the North American region.