Travellers returning to Canada – with the exception of ‘essential workers’ – will have to enter a mandatory 14-day quarantine as of midnight tonight, to try and slow the spread of COVID-19.

“This new measure will provide the clarity for those re-entering the country about the essential need to self-isolate,” said Federal Health Minister, Patty Hajdu on Wednesday. “Individuals who exhibit symptoms upon arrival in Canada will be forbidden, also, from using public transit to travel to their places self isolation.”

Hajdu says people returning to Canada will not be able to quarantine in a place where they may come into contact with vulnerable people. The Public Health Agency of Canada is making alternative arrangements for people in who are in those circumstances.

Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland says ‘mandatory isolation’ is needed to flatten the curve of the novel coronavirus in Canada. There is the potential of fines or even arrests for people violating them.

International travel – initially from China, then Iran and South Korea, then Europe, and now the United States – has continued to be a significant vector for the spread of the novel coronavirus. The Canada-U.S. border has been closed to non-essential travel, however, it remains open to trade and commerce, as well as to cross-border workers or students with visas.

The issue of quarantines, Freeland says, was debated at length during Monday’s meeting of the cabinet coronavirus committee.

The federal Quarantine Act was updated in 2005 after the SARS outbreak. It gives the federal health minister sweeping powers to stop the spread of communicable diseases either in or out of Canada.

– With files from the Canadian Press