Another day another round of COVID 19 news. Looks like the Canada-US border will stay closed, if your Canadian passport has expired – well, you’re probably not going anyplace just yet. Trump walks back the student immigration fiasco, the UK and France want their citizens masked and Thailand is tightening up on tourism.
Month to month
The US and Canada are poised to extend their agreement to keep their shared border closed to non-essential travel to Aug. 21, but a final confirmation has not been given, a person familiar with the matter said Tuesday. The agreement would likely extend the closure by another 30 days. The restrictions were announced on March 18 and were extended in April, May and June.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said this week that a decision on the border would be announced “in the coming days. We’re going to continue to work hard to keep Canadians safe and to keep our economies flowing and we will have more to say later this week,” Trudeau said
Most Canadians fear a reopening. The US has more confirmed cases and deaths from COVID-19 than any country in the world while Canada has flattened the epidemic curve.
Essential cross-border workers like healthcare professionals, airline crews and truck drivers are still permitted to cross. Truck drivers are critical as they move food and medical goods in both directions. Much of Canada’s food supply comes from or via the US.
Canadian Passports
You can only get passport or travel document services in Canada right now if you have a valid reason to travel urgently. And those reasons include: for a medical reason – because you have a serious illness, because of the serious illness or death of someone you know, because you’ll have financial problems from the loss of a job or business, to support an essential service or for humanitarian reasons – and you’ll need a note for that last one.
Walking back…but not to class
The Trump administration has rescinded its policy that would bar international students who only take online courses from staying in the US, a federal judge announced Tuesday in Boston. Facing eight federal lawsuits and opposition from hundreds of universities, the Trump administration on Tuesday rescinded a rule that would have required international students to transfer or leave the country if their schools held classes entirely online because of the pandemic.
The decision was announced at the start of a hearing in a federal lawsuit in Boston brought by Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology with more than 200 signing court briefs supporting the challenge. US District Judge Allison Burroughs said federal immigration authorities agreed to pull the July 6 directive and “return to the status quo.”
Under the policy, international students in the US would have been forbidden from taking all their courses online this fall. New visas would not have been issued to students at schools planning to provide all classes online, which includes Harvard. Students already in the US would have faced deportation if they didn’t transfer schools or leave the country voluntarily.
Immigration officials issued the policy last week, reversing earlier guidance from March 13 telling colleges that limits around online education would be suspended during the pandemic. University leaders believed the rule was part of Donald Trump’s effort to pressure the nation’s schools and colleges to reopen this fall even as new virus cases rise.
The policy drew sharp backlash from higher education institutions. Colleges said the policy would put students’ safety at risk and hurt schools financially. Many schools rely on tuition from international students, and some stood to lose millions of dollars in revenue if the rule had taken hold.
Masks On. UK.
British Health Secretary Matt Hancock has confirmed the wearing of masks will be mandatory in shops and supermarkets in England. The requirement is expected to take effect July 24. The decision follows weeks of discussion by the government about their value during the coronavirus pandemic.
Hancock told lawmakers in the House of Commons that face coverings can help keep people working in shops safe and can give people more confidence to safely shop. Anyone not wearing a face covering can be fined £100 ($171) and shops can refuse entry to anyone failing to comply.
Masks On. France.
French President Emmanuel Macron says he wants to require masks inside all indoor public spaces by Aug. 1. In an interview with French television networks marking Bastille Day, Macron says “the best prevention” for the virus are masks, social distancing and hand washing.
Macron says France’s virus reproduction rate is inching past 1 again, meaning each infected person is infecting at least one other. Recent rave parties in France and widespread backsliding on social distancing – even within Macron’s presidential palace and other government facilities -have raised concerns.
Many other European nations required masks in indoor public space when they started easing virus lockdowns. France took a more relaxed attitude, recommending but not requiring masks.
France has confirmed more than 30,000 virus deaths.
Thailand
Authorities in Thailand are suggesting almost 1,900 people quarantine themselves and get tested for the coronavirus after a breakdown in screening allowed two foreigners who tested positive for the disease to pose a risk to public health.
The agency co-ordinating Thailand’s coronavirus response also announced it was rolling back regulations for admitting foreign visitors to tighten up procedures.
A spokesman for the COVID-19 centre, said the agency was suggesting that 1,882 people whom a contact tracing app indicated may have crossed paths with an infected member of a visiting Egyptian military team self-isolate for 14 days and get themselves tested as soon as possible. Seven people already known to have had direct contact have already been quarantined.