CANADA IN LOCKDOWN MODE
STAY IN COUNTRY, HEALTH CZAR SAYS, AS OTTAWA ADDS RESTRICTIONS TO CRUISES, FLIGHTS
Feds advise against foreign travel
The federal government announced drastic travel restrictions Friday in a bid to clamp down on rising coronavirus rates. “My advice is to postpone or cancel all non-essential travel outside of Canada. This means reconsidering your vacations, going to sporting and entertainment events, large international conferences,” Canada’s chief public health officer, Dr. Theresa Tam, said during a press conference.
This is the first time that the country’s top doctor explicitly advised Canadians to cancel any form of international travel, suggesting trips within Canada instead.
“This is especially important for older adults and people with underlying medical conditions who are at a higher risk of developing severe disease,” she said.
“This is an extraordinary, unprecedented situation,” said Chrystia Freeland, the deputy prime minister of Canada.
As of noon Friday, there were 157 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Canada, with Saskatchewan, Manitoba and New Brunswick reporting their first cases.
The federal government also announced a host of new travel restrictions involving flights and cruises in the hopes of slowing the proliferation of the coronavirus in Canada from international sources.
Overseas flights coming into Canada will soon only be allowed to land at a limited number of airports, Transport Minister Marc Garneau announced. “This is a precaution that we should take so that we concentrate overseas international passengers coming into Canada to a smaller number of airports,” Garneau told reporters.
The details as to when this measure will be put into place and which airports will be chosen have yet to be announced.
As cruise ship season approaches rapidly, the government also decided that vessels of over 500 passengers will not be allowed to dock in Canada before July 1, 2020, at the earliest.
No cruise ships will be allowed to make any stops in the Canadian Arctic either for the entire season “given the limited public health capacity in Canada’s Northern communities,” Transport Canada added in a press release.
None of these measures will apply to ferries or smaller vessels yet, but more may be to come, the department specified.
These new precautions are in addition to the enhanced screening measures at all land, rail and marine points of entry announced last week. Those included questions on if the travellers have been to a “highrisk” country in the last 14 days, and a screen for symptoms of COVID-19.
“We know Canadians are worried,” said Patty Hajdu, the minister of health. “And let’s be clear, this is a serious public health threat and a crisis, as well as an emergency, and everybody is working as diligently as possible to contain the spread globally.”
Hadju admitted she was aware of how inconvenient some of these measures are for Canadians, but stressed that they were crucial in slowing the coronavirus’ progression.
“Over the past two months, we’ve been planning for this worst case scenario and we know now that we have to take additional measures each day and we will be coming to you with additional measures. And we know these measures are going to cause disruptions in your lives but we know that they are also incredibly necessary,” the health minister said.
These measures come barely less than two days after American President Donald Trump announced a 30-day travel ban on citizens of 26 European countries that takes effect from midnight on Friday.
Asked if Canada was considering a similar ban, or imposing border measures between our country and the United States, Hajdu was categorical: they don’t work.
“Canadians think we can stop this at the border. But what we see is a global pandemic, which means that border measures are highly ineffective and, in some cases, can create harm. We see that in countries that had the worst expressions, the tightest borders,” Hajdu said.
As an example, she pointed to Italy, who very quickly shut down borders when the virus started to spread within the country. The country now ranks second in number of confirmed COVID-19 infections.
When travel bans are put in place, “travellers become less honest about where they’ve come from, where they’ve travelled to, and what their symptoms may be,” she said.
With the exponential increase in diagnosed cases of the coronavirus in the United States, is that country soon going to be considered a high-risk place for transmission?
“We are considering all travel outside of Canada to be considered high-risk for Canadians right now,” the health minister said.