TORONTO —
A total of 30 flights have landed at a Canadian airport in the last two weeks with at least one confirmed case of COVID-19 onboard but passengers on those planes may not have been directly informed of their exposure risk.
Thirteen of the international flights landed in Toronto, five in Vancouver, one in Calgary, and two in Montreal. The most recent, an Aero Mexico flight from Mexico City, landed in Montreal on July 18.
Passengers are not notified directly by federal public health authorities to get tested, though the government acknowledges those onboard affected flights “may have been exposed to COVID-19.”
It goes on to say: “Being aware of the risk can help you take the necessary steps to protect your health and the health of others around you.”
But the government website cautions that its list is “not exhaustive” and based on information from “provincial and territorial health authorities, international health authorities and public websites.”
The government website reminds those returning to Canada they must quarantine for 14 days, the believed incubation period of the virus, whether or not they have symptoms. Passengers must also provide their contact information upon arrival, the Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC) reiterated to CTVNews.ca in response to queries on contact tracing for travellers.
Airlines say they are working with public health authorities, who have jurisdiction in any notification process. Federal health authorities say these notification protocols fall within provincial and territorial responsibilities.
Provincially, health authorities in British Columbia, Manitoba and Saskatchewan also post flights affected by COVID-19 online, but Alberta, Ontario, and Quebec do not. Alberta, for example, directs users to the federal list. Authorities in the Atlantic provinces advise the public as cases arise. B.C. health authorities specifically state on their website that international and domestic passengers seated near a confirmed case of COVID-19 are no longer directly notified of their potential exposure.
Infection control epidemiologist Colin Furness said that not instituting immediate contact tracing of confirmed cases on board flights is a “huge blindspot” in Canada’s pandemic response.
“Airlines are quite capable of sending you a text to tell you your flight’s delayed,” Furness, an assistant professor at the University of Toronto, told CTVNews.ca.
“Transport Canada could pass a regulation tomorrow that if an airline is notified of a case of COVID-19, they must text everyone on that plane.”
Transport Canada referred questions from CTVNews.ca to the PHAC, which is overseen by Health Canada. The agency said in an email that contact tracing activities are conducted at a local level and led by provinces and territories. It added that it does facilitate sharing relevant information between the airlines, the provinces and territories, as well as with the country from which the infected passenger arrived in accordance to the law.
Air Canada spokesperson Peter Fitzpatrick said contact tracing is the responsibility of health authorities.
“They determine whether contact tracing is necessary and will follow through as they deem appropriate (we do assist them by providing passenger information when requested),” he wrote in an email in response to questions from CTVNews.ca.
He said that a flagged flight doesn’t mean anyone “contracted COVID on the flight or necessarily had it during the flight, only that the individual recently travelled and has since tested positive for COVID-19.”
WestJet, which keeps a running tally of COVID-19 impacted flights on its blog, said in an email that it has a strict process and protocol in place for notifying crew members who served on an affected flight as soon as the airline is notified, and that has taken additional measures to help inform the public.
“It is our understanding we are the only airline taking the extra step to post affected flights to our external channels. We are doing this to inform the public at large and to aid the media in assisting public health officials in disseminating this information as quickly and as broadly as possible,” WestJet spokesperson Morgan Bell told CTVNews.ca by email.
As of July 16, when the WestJet list was last updated, it listed nine flights in July, but none since July 6.
AFFECTED ROWS UNKNOWN
Of the flights flagged on the federal government’s website, three domestic and eight international indicate that affected rows are unknown. Most of the others show a span of four to six rows.
According to Air Canada and PHAC, health agencies include affected rows based on information collected from the passenger, who might not remember where they sat or may have moved around during the flight.
Fitzpatrick said passengers with concerns about exposure on a plane should contact their doctor.
“However, it is important to understand the incidence of individuals contracting a communicable disease inflight is very low. As evidence, consider what are called ‘cluster outbreaks,’ where a group of people contract a disease at the same time and location. These are rarely if ever tied to modes of travel, whereas you often see reports of outbreaks arising from funerals, bars or other gatherings.”
An Air Canada fact sheet says, “the reasons for the apparently low rate of in-flight transmission are not fully determined but are thought to include a combination of the lack of face-to-face contact, and the physical barriers provided by seat backs, along with the characteristics of cabin air flow.”
Pre-flight screening, temperature monitoring and mandatory face coverings are “also seen to be effective.”
Joseph Allen, an assessment science professor at Harvard University, wrote in a Washington Post opinion piece in May that ventilation systems required for airplanes meet the standards for isolation rooms to treat COVID-19 patients recommended by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Allen said that while planes are vectors of disease that carry infectious people around the world, that doesn’t mean passengers are at risk while flying with them.
“Billions of people travel by plane every year, yet there have only been a handful of documented disease outbreaks attributable to airplanes in the past 40 years,” he wrote.
“If planes made you sick, we would expect to see millions of people sick every year attributable to flights. We haven’t seen it because it’s just not happening.”
Furness, the infection control epidemiologist in Toronto, doesn’t agree that flights pose a low risk. He says he won’t be flying until a COVID-19 vaccine is widely available.
He was surprised the federal government didn’t step in when airlines announced they would start selling middle seats again. He said he doesn’t trust airlines to take care of his health and he doesn’t accept that flying is safe.
“I think it’s a crazy situation that could lead us to another lockdown.”
TORONTO – Roots Corp. may have built its brand on all things comfy and cosy, but its CEO says activewear is now “really becoming a core part” of the brand.
The category, which at Roots spans leggings, tracksuits, sports bras and bike shorts, has seen such sustained double-digit growth that Meghan Roach plans to make it a key part of the business’ future.
“It’s an area … you will see us continue to expand upon,” she told analysts on a Friday call.
The Toronto-based retailer’s push into activewear has taken shape over many years and included several turns as the official designer and supplier of Team Canada’s Olympic uniform.
But consumers have had plenty of choice when it comes to workout gear and other apparel suited to their sporting needs. On top of the slew of athletic brands like Nike and Adidas, shoppers have also gravitated toward Lululemon Athletica Inc., Alo and Vuori, ramping up competition in the activewear category.
Roach feels Roots’ toehold in the category stems from the fit, feel and following its merchandise has cultivated.
“Our product really resonates with (shoppers) because you can wear it through multiple different use cases and occasions,” she said.
“We’ve been seeing customers come back again and again for some of these core products in our activewear collection.”
Her remarks came the same day as Roots revealed it lost $5.2 million in its latest quarter compared with a loss of $5.3 million in the same quarter last year.
The company said the second-quarter loss amounted to 13 cents per diluted share for the quarter ended Aug. 3, the same as a year earlier.
In presenting the results, Roach reminded analysts that the first half of the year is usually “seasonally small,” representing just 30 per cent of the company’s annual sales.
Sales for the second quarter totalled $47.7 million, down from $49.4 million in the same quarter last year.
The move lower came as direct-to-consumer sales amounted to $36.4 million, down from $37.1 million a year earlier, as comparable sales edged down 0.2 per cent.
The numbers reflect the fact that Roots continued to grapple with inventory challenges in the company’s Cooper fleece line that first cropped up in its previous quarter.
Roots recently began to use artificial intelligence to assist with daily inventory replenishments and said more tools helping with allocation will go live in the next quarter.
Beyond that time period, the company intends to keep exploring AI and renovate more of its stores.
It will also re-evaluate its design ranks.
Roots announced Friday that chief product officer Karuna Scheinfeld has stepped down.
Rather than fill the role, the company plans to hire senior level design talent with international experience in the outdoor and activewear sectors who will take on tasks previously done by the chief product officer.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 13, 2024.
VANCOUVER – Mediated talks between the union representing HandyDART workers in Metro Vancouver and its employer, Transdev, are set to resume today as a strike that has stopped most services drags into a second week.
No timeline has been set for the length of the negotiations, but Joe McCann, president of the Amalgamated Transit Union Local 1724, says they are willing to stay there as long as it takes, even if talks drag on all night.
About 600 employees of the door-to-door transit service for people unable to navigate the conventional transit system have been on strike since last Tuesday, pausing service for all but essential medical trips.
Hundreds of drivers rallied outside TransLink’s head office earlier this week, calling for the transportation provider to intervene in the dispute with Transdev, which was contracted to oversee HandyDART service.
Transdev said earlier this week that it will provide a reply to the union’s latest proposal on Thursday.
A statement from the company said it “strongly believes” that their employees deserve fair wages, and that a fair contract “must balance the needs of their employees, clients and taxpayers.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 12, 2024.
MONTREAL – Travel company Transat AT Inc. reported a loss in its latest quarter compared with a profit a year earlier as its revenue edged lower.
The parent company of Air Transat says it lost $39.9 million or $1.03 per diluted share in its quarter ended July 31.
The result compared with a profit of $57.3 million or $1.49 per diluted share a year earlier.
Revenue in what was the company’s third quarter totalled $736.2 million, down from $746.3 million in the same quarter last year.
On an adjusted basis, Transat says it lost $1.10 per share in its latest quarter compared with an adjusted profit of $1.10 per share a year earlier.
Transat chief executive Annick Guérard says demand for leisure travel remains healthy, as evidenced by higher traffic, but consumers are increasingly price conscious given the current economic uncertainty.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 12, 2024.
