2 quarantine hotels in the GTA hit with COVID-19 outbreaks

Two federally-designated quarantine hotels in the GTA, where international travellers are required to stay after arriving at Pearson International Airport, have been hit by COVID-19 outbreaks.

Hampton Inn and Suites on Caroga Drive in Mississauga is listed on Peel Region’s website as partially closed as of May 8. It is not yet known how many staff and guests have been affected.

According to Peel’s Section 22 Order, a business is ordered to close when “five or more people at a workplace test positive for COVID-19 within a period of 14 days.”

Peel Public Health determines whether the business should fully close, or whether the work area affected should close.

In Toronto, seven workers at the Holiday Inn Toronto International Airport on Dixon Road have tested positive for the virus. According to Toronto Public Health, the outbreak was declared on May 3 but then lifted the day after.

This is the third quarantine hotel in the GTA — the second one in Toronto — affected by an outbreak.

Last week, Toronto Public Health confirmed 13 cases of COVID-19 at the Crowne Plaza Toronto Airport Hotel. All of the cases are staff at the hotel. However, the hotel remains open as officials say the hotel provides essential service.

Toronto recently issued a Section 22 Order, requiring businesses to report an outbreak of five or more cases over a 14-day period, after which establishments can be ordered shuttered for at least 10 days.

Union officials have been calling for the hotel to pay a shift premium for its employees, and called on governments to hold pop-up clinics as close to the hotel as possible so workers can get vaccinated.

People travelling into Canada on an international flight are required to stay in a government-authorized hotel while waiting on the result of a COVID-19 test taken shortly after landing.

That rule has been in place since the end of February and was brought in as part of the effort to curb the spread of COVID-19.