More border restrictions needed as virus spreads in Michigan, Masse demands

Windsor West NDP MP Brian Masse has written a letter to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau demanding more restrictions on Canadians who cross the border to work in the U.S.

“The State of Michigan has become an emerging epicentre of the pandemic outbreak with cases climbing into the thousands in just over a week,” Masse writes.

“To highlight the contrasting circumstances the City of Detroit alone, with a metropolitan population similar to the size of Toronto’s, as of today has more cases than the entire population of Ontario.”

Masse goes on to say that those numbers are despite the lack of widespread testing, and anecdotal evidence suggests the lack of personal protective equipment and medical machinery are becoming increasingly evident.

“Local public health authorities trying to reduce the risk of spreading the disease have recommended that health professionals to restrict their work to just one facility,” Masse writes.

“Additionally, some health workers from Michigan who work in Windsor have responsibly chosen to stay in Windsor during the duration of this public health emergency to reduce the chance of spreading the virus.”

Masse tells Trudeau the circumstances in Michigan “have become vastly different in just a week and to reduce the danger to Canadians and residents in Windsor and all border communities in similar situations, I am requesting the government to consider additional measures.”

Masse says those measures should include heightened and expansive daily screening for each health-care worker or segregation of returning health-care workers to designated housing away from their homes, or possibly require heath-care workers who cross the border daily to stay in the United States until public health authorities have alternative solutions.

“Every effort must be made to reduce public risk during this outbreak,” Masse writes.

“Healthcare workers in Michigan an New York are at extreme personal risk of being exposed to the virus and becoming infected and potentially spreading it when they return to Canada. Instituting new protocols or procedures to mitigate and ameliorate this risk is of the utmost importance.”