Ford welcomes Canada's latest travel rules, says new variant is cause for concern, but not panic

Ontario Premier Doug Ford welcomed the federal government’s latest travel restrictions and testing requirements in response to the Omicron variant, saying local cases are “a cause for concern, but not a cause for panic.”

The premier made the comments during a news conference on Wednesday about the provinces long awaited plans for a rebuild of Trillium Health Partners' Mississauga Hospital and just hours after the federal government announced it will add more countries to the list of nations subjected to travel restrictions, and will impose new testing requirements on all air travellers coming from outside of Canada with the exception of the U.S.

“Every day we learn more about the Omicron virus and about how quickly it can spread and how severe it may be,” Ford told reporters. “Every day we hold off on more cases entering our country, the more time we have to learn and prepare. So the best thing we can do right now is to fortify our borders.”

“We welcome the actions from the federal government and I want to thank the feds for taking action today … We cannot jeopardize the gains that we've made.”

Little is yet known about Omicron at this point in time, including whether it is more contagious, causes more serious illness or can evade vaccines. Scientists say it is of concern due to its high number of mutations. While the Omicron variant was first detected in South Africa, it may have already been in other parts of the world before South African scientists flagged it to the world.