Senior Canadian Health Official and Ontario Doctor: Don't Blame Travel For Variant Numbers

Senior Canadian Health Official and Ontario Doctor: Don’t Blame Travel For Variant Numbers

May 1, 2021 ctn_admin

A senior health official in the Canadian government and a critical care physician from Toronto are rejecting Ontario Premier Doug Ford’s call for tighter border controls to battle COVID-19 variants.

Ford this week called on the Liberal government in Ottawa to stop all international flights to Canada and also asked that the hotel quarantines required of air passengers be extended to those crossing into Canada by land.

But the Toronto Star today reports that chief public health officer Dr. Theresa Tam and her deputy Dr. Howard Njoo said the biggest problem is community transmission, and that Njoo suggested the call for more border measures is misplaced.

Ford’s demands, Njoo said, are “detracting from what the primary focus should be from a public health perspective.”

Dr. Kali Barrett, a critical care physician at the University Health Network in Toronto, posted a similar response on her Twitter feed.

“@FordNation does not understand how viruses spread,” she wrote. “The variants are predominant now. They are spreading in communities and in workplaces.

“Closing the borders will not fix the problem that currently exists in workplaces and communities,” Dr. Barrett said.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Friday said again that federal efforts to curb travel have been effective

“Importation through the borders is extremely low in terms of cases in the country. It’s not zero,” he said, adding that measures at the border have been “effective in controlling the importation of cases and making them not the primary vector for new cases in this country.”

Trudeau said this week that international traffic into Canada is down 95% from pre-pandemic levels and that the only people being allowed into the country are Canadian citizens and permanent residents, plus essential workers and a few others granted exemptions.

The Canadian government has placed a 30-day ban on flights into Canada from both India and Pakistan to help battle the so-called India variant.

But Ford insists Trudeau isn’t doing nearly enough.

Speaking to the media on Friday, Ford said variants have entered Canada “because of weak border measures.”

“If I had the power I would close Pearson airport immediately,” Ford said. “I would shut down the land border crossings to only those who are absolutely essential because I would do anything within my power to stop a vaccine-resistant variant from getting into our country and bringing a fourth wave with it.”

Passengers who fly into Canada must produce a negative PCR test for COVID-19 before they fly, and are tested again when they land. They’re supposed to then isolate at an approved government airport hotel for up to three days while they await their test result. If their test is positive, they’re sent to a separate government facility to serve out the rest of their required 14-day quarantine. If they test negative, they can go home or to a private residence and finish out their 14-day quarantine there.

People crossing into Canada by land also must produce a negative PCR test result, and also are supposed to be tested once they enter the country. But, instead of going to a hotel for up to three days, they can serve their entire 14-day quarantine at a private home.

Passengers arriving by air and those coming into Canada by land also are supposed to take an approved COVID-19 test eight days into their quarantine.

The hotel stays are inconvenient and can cost more than $2,000. There have been reports of some travellers flying into U.S. airports and then crossing into Canada by car or even on foot so they can avoid the hotel stay and quarantine at a private home.