MONTREAL — A significant number of travellers who recently returned from sunny destinations to Montreal and Quebec City were exposed to the novel coronavirus because there was at least one confirmed case of COVID-19 on board their flight. 

The list of international flights of concern to public health officials in Canada has continued to grow since the start of January, according to data compiled by the federal government in its update on Saturday.

As recently as last week, Air Transat had two flights where all of its passengers were exposed to COVID-19, but this time from Port-au-Prince, Haiti.

These planes landed in Montreal on Jan. 10 and 13.

Ten days earlier, it was six rows of passengers on an Air Transat flight arriving from the Haitian capital who were exposed to COVID-19.

Quebecers who travelled to Mexico, Cuba, the United States and France also need to watch for symptoms a little more closely because they were exposed to the virus when they returned home.

This is particularly the case for passengers on three Air Canada flights from Cancun, Mexico, which landed in Montreal from Jan. 3-5.

Passengers in a total of 27 rows were exposed.

Other travellers returning from Fort Lauderdale, Florida were also exposed aboard six other Air Canada and Air Canada Rouge flights up to last week.

Two Sunwing flights, from Varadero (Cuba) and Cancun, also carried people who had COVID-19, on Jan. 3, until the aircraft landed in Montreal.

This was also the case for the passengers of an Air Transat flight returning to Quebec City from Cancun, on Jan. 6.

Passengers in six rows are affected.

Four flights from Paris were also affected by carriers Air Canada and Air France on Jan. 5 and 6.

In short, these are just a few recent examples, among a larger number of monitored flights across Canada, demonstrating the importance for travellers to respect the 14-day quarantine after their arrival in Canada.