In an announcement on Thursday, Canada’s Transportation Minister Omar Alghabra suspended all passenger flights from Pakistan and India, citing a surge in COVID-19 cases being detected in passengers travelling from the two countries. 

The suspension will go into effect from 11.30 pm Eastern time on Thursday for the next 30 days, reported AFP. 

Alghabra said in a news conference, “Given the higher number of cases of COVID-19 detected in air passengers arriving in Canada from India and Pakistan… I am suspending all commercial and private passenger flights arriving in Canada from Indian and Pakistan for 30 days.” 

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The Transportation Minister further added that the suspension only applies to passenger flights and that the air passage will remain open for all cargo flights to continue the shipment of all personal protective equipment, other essential goods, and vaccines. 

Canada Health Minister Patty Hajdu said about 1.8% of travellers from India and Pakistan have tested positive for COVID-19. Passengers from India account for 20% of recent travellers to Canada and more than half of all positive tests at the border were from flights arriving from the country. She said that “a similarly high level of cases… have also been linked to Pakistan.”

India is currently experiencing an alarming surge of COVID-19 cases. On Thursday, it recorded more than 300,000 new cases in a single day and is being blamed for the COVID-19 super-spreader “double mutant” variant, reported AFP. 

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The Parliament voted unanimously on Thursday to urge the government to ban non-essential flights from COVID hotspot countries like India and Brazil where variants have surged. 

Alghabra said there are currently no scheduled flights between Canada and Brazil, but added that “we will not hesitate to ban travel to other countries if the science bears that out.”

Back in December, Canada had suspended flights from Britain as well after reports of COVID variant outbreaks.