As Ontario grapples with skyrocketing hospitalizations and cases of COVID-19 variants, the provincial government is asking Ottawa for enhanced measures for interprovincial travellers, specifically requiring mandatory pre-departure PCR testing for all domestic air travellers entering the province.

In a letter Monday to the federal ministers of health and public safety, Ontario says it has already closed its boundaries with Quebec and Manitoba to non-essential travel, but there are no measures in place to protect provinces from the spread of COVID-19 variants through interprovincial air travel, an area of federal responsibility.

Mandatory pre-departure PCR tests for domestic air travellers would be an extension to current rules for international passengers seeking entry into Canada.

The letter says there have been 17 domestic flights in the past two weeks to Toronto’s Pearson International Airport with possible COVID-19 exposures and adds there have also been potential exposures on flights landing at other Ontario airports, including Ottawa and Hamilton.

The letter comes as health-care workers from Newfoundland and Labrador and three teams of nurses and medical technicians from the Canadian Armed Forces arrived in the province to help with the crisis.