Mendicino defends hotel quarantine, says expectation is to get ‘appropriate food, accommodations’

Canadian Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino defended the quarantine measures put in place due to concerns of the Omicron COVID-19 variant, including the use of hotels as quarantine facilities amid reports of travellers receiving a lack of personal necessities and longer waits to get discharged. He said the measures were to “protect Canadians” and buy time to learn more about Omicron, but he added there is an expectation travellers should isolate but get access to “appropriate food (and) accommodations.”