As of 9 a.m. this morning, airline passengers in Canada may be denied boarding their flights if they don’t have a non-medical face mask with them.

B.C.’s top doctor thinks these new rules could be in place for the foreseeable future.

“Transport Canada has put in place a requirement to wear a non medical mask, a cloth face mask during transit right now,” said Dr. Bonnie Henry.

“I think that’s probably going to be in place until we have a better understanding of what this virus is going to do in the future or we have a way to protect people through things like immunization.”

Passengers will have to wear these masks at security checkpoints, and whenever maintaining physical distancing isn’t possible.

The only exceptions to the new rules are for children under the age of two and some people with disabilities. Airline passengers displaying COVID-19 symptoms will not be allowed to board aircraft regardless of whether they have a mask.