Canada is closing its borders to most foreign nationals except Americans and is barring anyone, including Canadian citizens, with symptoms of the novel coronavirus from boarding flights to this country, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Monday. Automated questionnaires administered through touchscreens at entry points will now ask everyone who is arriving from overseas whether they have coughs, difficulty breathing or are feeling feverish.
Exempt from the ban are Americans, diplomats, airline crew and people with family in Canada.
Canada’s border closure takes effect March 18 and airlines will be required to screen all passengers for signs of the virus and deny boarding to anyone showing symptoms.
Overseas flights will be funnelled to just four airports in Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver and Calgary to allow the Canada Border Services Agency to better screen arrivals and ensure they are getting information that they are to self-isolate for 14 days to keep COVID-19 from spreading.
While the federal government wants people returning to Canada from abroad to stay in isolation for 14 days, travellers reported customs officials weren’t routinely providing the direction to new arrivals, prompting fear, anger and frustration.
Canada’s chief public health officer Dr. Theresa Tam said the rate of infection in Canada is increasing and the effort to slow the spread of the virus to give health systems a fighting chance to be able to treat it must be heightened immediately.
“We are in a fairly critical period,” Tam said.
Those with the virus typically experience mild or moderate symptoms, such as fever and cough.
The vast majority recover, but for some, including Canadians aged 65 and over and those with compromised immune systems or pre-existing conditions, the illness can be much more severe. The government’s goal is to keep the number of severe cases down to a level hospitals and doctors can handle.
British Columbia reported three more deaths from COVID-19, all residents of the same North Vancouver care home that saw Canada’s first death a week ago. Across the country the number of confirmed cases is now close to 400, with new confirmed cases in many provinces including 32 in Ontario and 30 in British Columbia at mid-day. The number has nearly doubled since Friday.
Tam said the critical element is how many of the new cases were not linked to recent travel.
The country is in the midst of an unprecedented slowdown, with schools and public facilities closing, retailers and restaurants temporarily shutting down or limiting services, and business leaders urging all companies to allow as many workers as possible to work from home. Tam said Canadians should not gather in groups with more than 50 people and should stay home entirely as much as possible.
Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland said she is proud of how Canada is coming together as a country to try to slow the spread of this virus but warned the worst is yet to come.
“What the experts are telling us is that this situation will get worse before it gets better,” she said, in a briefing from Parliament Hill, which she said will become a daily occurrence.
Some provinces, including British Columbia, wanted Canada to include Americans in the border closure, but Freeland said that decision is being reviewed and debated constantly, given issues such as the need for food and other supplies to flow across the border. What measures are taken, she said, need to be thought through.
She pointed out, however, that Canada has also asked people to limit non-essential travel, and that all incoming travellers from the US are being asked to self-isolate for 14 days.
“Self-isolation for 14 days in Canada. That, I don’t consider to be something that a tourist would like to do for a holiday,” she said.
Trudeau is promising additional measures to help workers later this week. Ontario Premier Doug Ford Monday said his government will table emergency legislation to ensure job security for anyone who can’t work because of COVID-19, including the need to quarantine, self-isolate or look after kids who can’t go to school.
The union representing Canada’s border officers was also set to meet with the CBSA on Monday after raising concerns last week about a lack of information and guidance to its members, one of whom has tested positive for COVID-19.
ARRIVALS TO YUL
Montreal deployed resources to Montreal-Trudeau International Airport on Monday to urge Canadians returning to the country to self-isolate as the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in the province continued to rise.
Dr. Mylene Drouin, Montreal’s director of public health, said international travellers will have to go past civil security and public health employees from the city before leaving the airport.
The city’s measures are needed because travellers arriving in the province do not appear to be taking Quebec’s order requiring two weeks of isolation seriously, Drouin said.
“Each time a traveller does not self-isolate, it’s a breach that the virus can get through into the community,” she told reporters.
Travellers will be given an information sheet and asked to note their symptoms and take their temperature twice a day during the isolation period.
Public health officials have also made a request to the federal government for gloves and thermometers to hand out to returning Canadian travellers.
Provincial health authorities said Monday the number of new confirmed COVID-19 tests is up to 50 across the province. There were 3,073 people under investigation for the disease, while 3,079 have received a negative result.
Premier Francois Legault appealed to Quebecers to donate blood to ensure stockpiles are not depleted as people avoid going out.
Health Minister Danielle McCann said the province has enough test kits and will be ratcheting up testing as of Tuesday with the opening of new centres allowing for more than 6,000 tests per day, up from 1,600.
Meanwhile, Drouin said isolation is key for all returning travellers.
“That’s why we’re asking friends, family, colleagues to support people who’ll be in self-isolation or confinement for 14 days because they’ve travelled abroad,” Drouin said. “If you have someone coming (home) from a trip, help them, get them their groceries and medication. Call them every day.”
Montreal Mayor Valerie Plante said travellers must be made aware that upon arriving in Canada, they cannot go to work, school or anywhere else for two weeks.
“It’s actually essential if we want to contain the virus, so having public health, public security agents there will send a very strong message,” she said.
SNOWBIRDS
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau had a message to Canadians Monday afternoon. “If you are abroad, it is time for you to come home.” He said the government will set up a fund to help Canadians return home, if they find the cost out of their reach.
Ottawa’s directive has left snowbirds grappling with whether to enter self-isolation in Canada or stay in sunnier climes.
Some countries closed their borders in an effort to stop COVID-19’s march across the globe, raising the possibility that Canadians could get stuck abroad. The feds also called on everyone returning from abroad to stay in isolation for weeks.
But even the Canadian Snowbird Association was preparing its members for an imminent return.
“As snowbirds make their preparations to return home to Canada, it is important that they heed the advice of public health officials regarding coronavirus disease,” the group said on its website.