42 COVID-infected flights landed at Pearson since Oct. 25: Feds
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While Calgary, which over the past two weeks saw just one international flight with a COVID-19 afflicted passenger, begins its federal passenger testing program, Toronto continues to lead the country in infected arrivals.
According to Health Canada, a record 35 international flights with at least one passenger infected with coronavirus landed at Pearson International Airport since Oct. 25 — mostly from Europe.
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The bulk of the infected flights originated in Germany — Air Canada 847 from Munich on Oct. 25 and Oct. 28, and three from Frankfurt carried by both Air Canada and Lufthansa.
Air Canada 849 from London Heathrow brought infected passengers on Oct. 28, Oct. 30 and Nov. 3, Air France 356 from Paris on Oct. 28, and TAP Air Portugal flight 259 from Lisbon on Oct. 31.
LOT flight 45 from Warsaw also recorded COVID-19 passengers on Oct. 25, Oct. 28 and Nov. 1.
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Four flights from the Middle East also recorded infections — Emirates 241 from Dubai on Oct. 25, Oct. 26 and 30, as well as Etihad Airlines 141 from Abu Dhabi.
Health Canada also reports Air India 187 on Oct. 25 and Oct. 29 from Delhi as having infected passengers, as well as Turkish Airlines 17 from Istanbul on Oct. 27, Oct. 28 and Nov. 1.
As for flights originating in the United States, five from Chicago saw infected passengers, as well as planes arriving from Fort Lauderdale, Charlotte and Washington Dulles.
Other infected passengers arrived from Sao Paulo, Mexico City, Montego Bay and Cancun.
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Pearson also saw seven domestic flights with reported infections — two from Vancouver, one each from Montreal and Victoria, and three from Calgary — which on Nov. 2 began a pilot program offering COVID-19 tests to arriving international travellers.
Since Oct. 25, Calgary saw just one flight with a reported COVID-19 infection — KLM 677 from Amsterdam on Oct. 30.
Like Toronto, Calgary saw seven COVID-19 domestic flights over the same time period.
John C. Munro airport in Hamilton saw two arrivals and one departure with COVID-19 infected passengers.
Health Canada does not provide information on how many infected passengers attended each flight, in many cases only providing ranges of row numbers where passengers may have sat.
Both Transport Canada and the transportation minister’s office previously told the Sun no timetable exists to expand the program to other Canadian airports, or if plans were in the works to screen domestic passengers.
bpassifiume@postmedia.com
On Twitter: @bryanpassifiume
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