Toronto area family questions COVID-19 travel rules after spending days in quarantine facility
CTV
A Toronto area family is questioning Canada's COVID-19 testing and travel rules after spending days in a quarantine hotel following their return from South Africa.
The Hayes family left for South Africa on Nov. 13 and were scheduled to return to Canada on Nov. 28. They said they received their negative COVID-19 tests and arrived at the airport, but then "everything kind of hit the fan."
"We got to the airport in Cape Town, and we were told that the Canadian government decided to change the COVID testing rules requiring a third country COVID test," Doug Hayes said. "So that meant that when we arrived in Ethiopia, we had to test there and get the results back."
Hayes said that he and his two adult daughters had to wait in the airport for the test results to come back negative. They ended up missing their original flight and spent about 30 hours at the airport in Addis Ababa.
When the family finally arrived at Toronto International Pearson Airport on Sunday morning, they expected to have to self-quarantine for 14 days. Instead, they were told they had to get a COVID-19 test at the airport and then go to a quarantine hotel while they awaited their results.