At least 143 flights with COVID-19 on board passed through B.C. airports in July
As COVID-19 cases surge in B.C. and across North America, the number of exposures to the disease on flights in and out of the province is also rising.
As of Wednesday, the B.C. Centre for Disease Control had reported 143 flights involving B.C. airports that had at least one confirmed case of the coronavirus on board in the month of July.
That's the highest monthly total the BCCDC has reported since April, when provincial airports saw a record 261 exposure notifications at the height of the pandemic's third wave.
The number of exposures reported in July is likely to continue to climb as more people who flew near the end of the month test positive for COVID-19 and have their contacts traced.
July's numbers continue a trend in which the number of flight exposures largely mirrors the number of cases being reported in the province, overall.
During the months of May and June, as infections in B.C. were trending downward and restrictions were being lifted, the number of flights with the coronavirus on board also declined.
The July increase came alongside notable changes in travel rules and recommendations in Canada.
When B.C. entered Step 3 of its restart plan on July 1, it officially stopped discouraging recreational travel to other provinces. While there was never a legal ban on it, non-essential travel within Canada was not recommended earlier in the pandemic.
Similarly, on July 6, the federal government began allowing fully vaccinated Canadian citizens and permanent residents to return from abroad without having to quarantine.
So far, the changes have not decoupled flight exposures from the overall trend in B.C.'s caseload. The graph of flight exposures continues to look very similar to the graph of daily new cases in B.C.
With Canada scheduled to expand the exemption to quarantine rules to include fully vaccinated Americans as of Aug. 9, CTV News Vancouver will continue monitoring the number of flights with cases on board to see if it continues to follow the overall trend in cases in B.C.
Notably, most of the flights with COVID-19 on board in B.C. since the pandemic began have been domestic, rather than international.
July's 143 flights included 55 that were international, the largest number of international flights with COVID-19 cases on board ever recorded in a month, according to BCCDC data.
Studies have shown that the risk of contracting COVID-19 on an airplane is low, though there have been some examples of it happening.
The full list of B.C. flights with COVID-19 exposures can be found on the BCCDC website.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
For the first time in report's history, Canada's air quality worse than U.S.
Air quality in Canada is now worse than in the U.S., according to the 6th Annual World Air Quality Report. Of the 15 most polluted cities in the two countries, 14 were in Canada.
A newspaper says video of Prince William and Kate should halt royal rumour mill. That's a tall order
Prince William and his wife Catherine have been filmed at a farm shop near their Windsor home, The Sun newspaper reported -- the first footage of Kate since she had abdominal surgery for an unspecified condition two months ago.
BREAKING Roy McMurtry, former Ontario attorney general, dies at 91
CTV News has confirmed that former Ontario attorney general Roy McMurtry has died.
Hertz CEO out following electric car 'horror show'
The company, which announced in January it was selling 20,000 of the electric vehicles in its fleet, or about a third of the EVs it owned, is now replacing the CEO who helped build up that fleet, giving it the company’s fifth boss in just four years.
'You ask for your money, they disappear': Ontario man loses $17K to AI crypto scam
A Toronto man is spreading the word of a cryptocurrency scam that lures victims using AI-generated news sites after he lost $17,000 in investments.
DEVELOPING Canada's annual inflation rate ticked down to 2.8 per cent in February, defying expectations
Statistics Canada says the annual inflation rate edged down to 2.8 per cent in February.
High thoughts: The habits of Canadian cannabis users are revealed in a new StatCan report
Statistics Canada has conducted a series of surveys to measure the impacts of legalized cannabis since the Cannabis Act took effect in 2018. The latest one, the 2023 National Cannabis Survey, sheds light on users' preferences and habits last year.
Demand soars for solar eclipse glasses in Canada. Are they worth buying?
The demand for total solar eclipse glasses used to safely view the rare celestial event has been ramping up as sellers, along with astronomy and eye-care experts in Canada, warn that viewing the eclipse with the naked eye is dangerous.
Trump says Jews who vote for Democrats 'hate Israel' and their religion
Former U.S. president Donald Trump on Monday charged that Jews who vote for Democrats 'hate Israel' and hate 'their religion,' igniting a firestorm of criticism from the White House and Jewish leaders.