COVID-19 variants

The national public health agency says it's "closely monitoring" the COVID-19 situation in China, but gives no indication it's planning to follow the U.S. by requiring that travellers from China be tested for the virus.

Canada's transport minister says the federal government strongly encourages people to wear masks on planes and trains as regions across the country report increasing pressure on the health-care system, but he stopped short of making it a requirement.

With pandemic restrictions easing across Canada, a House of Commons committee was warned on April 25, 2022, that disruptive new variants of COVID-19 will continue to emerge every few months unless the low vaccination rate in poorer countries rises.

Chief public health officer Dr. Theresa Tam says the latest variant of interest in the COVID-19 pandemic has popped up in Canada in small numbers, but it's too early to know how widespread it is or what impact it could have.

Canada's chief medical adviser says her department is constantly receiving and reviewing any data on vaccines and COVID-19 variants and will be ready to quickly authorize needed boosters when they're available.

Chief public health officer Dr. Theresa Tam says Canada is in "a very delicate period" as case counts for fast-spreading COVID-19 variants tick upward across the country, even while overall numbers of new coronavirus cases fall.