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The growing number of COVID-19 cases in Canada prompted a wave of restrictions aimed at protecting seniors on Saturday as officials made more insistent calls for travellers to return home without delay.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, meanwhile, announced he held a phone call with President Donald Trump following a news conference in which U.S. officials raised the possibility of grounding all domestic flights south of the border.

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The threat was part of the growing alarm over the COVID-19 pandemic, which has triggered an unprecedented number of closures and other measures meant to protect the population.

The most notable new measures on Saturday targeted seniors and their loved ones in Quebec and Ontario. Both provinces announced rigid new restrictions on who could visit long-term care facilities in those provinces.

Quebec Premier Francois Legault took things one step further by advising anyone over the age of 70 to stay home until further notice and implementing a provincewide ban on visitors to hospitals and seniors’ residences.