A new COVID-19 variant in the United Kingdom caused Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to convene the Incident Response Group to discuss Canada’s response. The group includes, among others, the Minister of Health , and the Minister of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness, as well as Chief Public Health Officer Dr. Theresa Tam.

They were updated on the variant’s properties, including its reportedly higher transmissiblity. The group was told of measures to be implemented in Canada to give public health officials time to gather further evidence and conduct additional research on the new variant.

These include a 72-hour suspension of all commercial and private passenger flights from the UK that went into effect at midnight, and secondary screening of all travelers who arrived in Canada from the United Kingdom in the last day.

These new measures are in addition to the travel restrictions and border measures that have been in place since March.