Mr. Chair, we know that aviation networks can play a role in the global importation of emerging infectious diseases. For the ongoing COVID-19 epidemic, 24 countries had officially reported cases by the first week of February 2020. The first cases in these countries all had travel history. With this information, Transport Canada has worked with the aviation industry to implement one of the strongest public health and safety responses to COVID-19 in the global aviation industry.
It's important to note that this industry is already heavily regulated in Canada to ensure the strongest safety measures to protect travelling Canadians.
And as I've mentioned, we have put additional measures in place, including pre-boarding health checks and visual inspection. We were the first country to make face coverings mandatory in the aviation industry through regulation. We are also implementing temperature screening for outbound and inbound passengers in Canada.
We continue to work with the industry to implement additional measures to reduce the risk of the Canadian aviation industry becoming a vector for the virus.