Porous Border: Globetrotters and Quarantine Cons endanger Canada amid U.S. Coronavirus upswing

The smallest region in Canada, Prince Edward Islands; for two months and a week, passed without a new case of the Coronavirus. Until the early part of this month when the smallest region in Canada, reported some new cases connected to an international student who came into Canada from the U.S. The man violated the self-isolation regulation on arrival in Canada and must have infected an individual who in turn must have infected other persons.

According to Colin Furness, an epidemiologist and assistant professor at the University of Toronto, there is no way control can be initiated or telling people to self- isolate with people crossing the border daily in thousands of which he went to admit that the eventuality is a scary one. As Canada’s Coronavirus cases and deaths are receding, the upsurge of new cases in the United States is a huge problem for Canadian agencies because they will deal with both unwelcome travelers sneaking through the border and lawful travelers who do not adhere to the quarantine procedures.

This challenge is aggravated by a recent high in border crossings. Over 187,000 truck drivers and persons crossed over into Canada last week from the United States. That is a 30% increase which is very troubling. According to Furness, he likened the danger of these risks to ice getting thinner beneath the feet which automatically translates to the country allowing those risks which invariably makes the citizenry vulnerable. Furness reiterated that though the border has been shut-down to non-essential travel since 21st March, essential workers, truckers, returning Canadians, Americans driving to Alaska and foreigners coming for family reunion are all given ease of entry into Canada; the law state that all must self-isolate for 14 days, but people are not obeying the law.

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Canada’s public health agency has taken bold steps and has thus far contacted 175,723 foreigners to establish compliance, whilst the police have succeeded in performing physical confirmatory checks on 1,492 vital persons. This week in the rural parts of Ontario, a Florida couple was penalized non-adherence to the quarantine law, while last week a Minnesota couple were also penalized in Ontario. The Police have also penalized many U.S. nationals for stopping over to hike in Banff National Park while on their way to Alaska.