Premier Doug Ford isn’t the only one who is concerned about American visitors in Ontario. Ford doesn’t want to see the Canada-US border opened when the current closure expires July 21, considering the positive trends in the province compared to a COVID-19 resurgence in many states. Meanwhile US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo played down concerns Thursday that the European Union might refuse to allow Americans into the 27-nation bloc as it considers lifting restrictions on overseas travellers starting next week, due to the spread of the coronavirus in the United States.
Some US governors are embracing measures they previously resisted as they deal with a spike in COVID-19 cases.
Texas Governor Greg Abbott and Arizona Governor Doug Ducey abruptly halted further efforts to re-open their economies and are now telling people to stay home.
Critics argue that the course corrections are too little and may be too late.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has extended a ban on non-essential travel between the two countries until at least that day, and Ford said even after that it seems too early.
“I know it’s inevitable, we’ve got to do it, I just don’t think we’re ready right now,” Ford said.
“You see what’s happening down in the states, you look at Florida, you look at Texas, Arizona, California – I don’t want to be those states.”
Several states set single-day COVID-19 case records this week, including Arizona, California, Mississippi, Nevada, Texas and Oklahoma.
Ontario, meanwhile, has recorded fewer than 200 new daily cases for 10 out of the past 12 days and with a growth rate of less than one percent for almost three weeks.
“This isn’t over. I can’t stress it enough. We’re doing great because everyone listened,” Ford said.
“But man, this thing comes back, that’s what concerns me. So, we have to stay focused and we can’t let our guard down for a heartbeat. We let our guard down and look what happened to Florida, look what happened to California and Arizona and Texas. That’s what happens when you’re reckless, you’re careless and you let your guard down.”
Ontario’s chief medical officer, Dr. David Williams, said some of the states with roughly the same population as Ontario are reporting more than 1,500 new daily cases. In Ontario, no day has seen an increase over 700.
“It says you cannot be casual about opening up,” he said.
“We’d like to get low enough to say with our methods, with our controls, with our protection, with our social circles, with our cohorting, we might even fend off a second wave.”
Ontario’s Financial Accountability Officer said that last year the tourism, culture and heritage sectors generated $43.7 billion in economic activity, representing 4.9 percent of Ontario’s Gross Domestic Product.
But until international travel can “significantly resume,” the loss in annual spending by international tourists will reach $11.4 billion, the office said in a report Thursday.
Europe
European nations appear on track to reopen their borders between each other by July 1. Their envoys to Brussels are debating what virus-related criteria should apply when lifting entry restrictions on travellers from outside the EU that were imposed in March.
As the criteria are narrowed down, a list of countries whose citizens might be allowed in is being drawn up. The list would be updated every 14 days based on how the coronavirus is spreading around the world.
The EU’s executive commission recommends that “travel restrictions should not be lifted as regards third countries where the situation is worse” than the average in the 27 EU member countries plus Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Switzerland.
That is likely to rule out people living in the United States, where new coronavirus infections have surged to the highest level in two months, according to figures compiled by Johns Hopkins University.
Beyond epidemiological concerns, any country being considered would first be expected to lift its own travel restrictions on visitors from all 31 European nations.
This would also rule out the US. In a March 11 decree, Donald Trump suspended the entry of all people from Europe’s ID check-free travel area. More than 10 million Europeans usually visit the United States each year.
But Pompeo said it’s important for everyone to help “get our global economy back going again.”
“We’ve denied travel to Europe and vice-versa. That’s the posture that we all sit in now, and I think we’re all taking seriously the need to figure out how to get this up,” he said. “We’ll work to get this right. We want to make sure that it’s health-based, science-based.”
The European Commission on Thursday insisted that it’s not trying to target any country or that the list might be politicized as tourism-reliant countries around Europe push to get their borders open again.
“The European Union has an internal process to determine from which countries it would be safe to accept travellers,” spokesman Eric Mamer said, adding that the EU’s decisions are “based on health criteria.”