Sask. gov’t data shows increase in flights carrying passengers with COVID

More than 100 flights into or out of Regina and Saskatoon in December carried someone who later tested positive for COVID-19.

On Wednesday morning, the Government of Saskatchewan‘s website showed 130 such flights into and out of the province’s two largest cities this month.

By comparison, there were 23 affected flights into or out of Regina and Saskatoon in November and 18 in October.

There were 54 affected flights up to and including Dec. 17. From one week before Christmas until Wednesday, there were 76 such flights.

The vast majority of the flights were domestic, either going to or arriving from Calgary, Toronto, Vancouver, Hamilton, Edmonton, and Winnipeg.

But there also were 10 flights that went to or arrived from Mexican cities such as Cancun and Puerto Vallarta.

Justin Reves of the Regina Airport Authority told the Greg Morgan Morning Show on Wednesday that COVID-19 and travel restrictions put in place because of the virus may have convinced some people not to fly.

But safeguards have been put in place by airlines and by health officials to try to combat the spread of the virus, including randomized testing for international travellers.

Reves said some passengers are pulled aside after a plane lands and are given an arrival test, which requires them to wait at home for a day or two until they get their results.

Those tests may become more prevalent if COVID and its variants continue to spread.

“(Health officials) are saying they want to get to 100 per cent (of passengers tested),” Reves said. “I think that’s going to take them a little while to get up to that capacity, but that is their goal.”