Premier Jason Kenney says Alberta is enacting the strongest public health measures in the country for international travellers to prevent the spread of COVID-19.

Effective immediately, anyone arriving at the Calgary or Edmonton international airport from outside of Canada will be required to pass through a provincial checkpoint and undergo a thermal scan.

Elevated body temperature is a potential symptom of COVID-19.

They’ll also need to complete an Alberta isolation plan detailing if they have an appropriate place to isolate for 14 days, how they will travel to their isolation location, and their plans for getting essentials like food and medications.

Kenney says “countries like Taiwan, Singapore and South Korea have been successful at mitigating the spread because they took immediate action securing their borders long before the World Health Organization declared COVID-19 a pandemic. I’ve been clear it was irresponsible for Canada to wait so long to close our borders, especially from countries with high levels of infection. While Alberta does not control who can fly here, we will deploy a more rigorous approach in screening international arrivals. These measures are critical to ensure we continue to flatten the curve and keep Albertans safe.”

A similar checkpoint will be set-up at the Coutts border crossing in a couple of weeks.