To get to Net Zero, Andrew Nikiforuk writes, we have to tightly control our borders -- something we have not done:
On CBC’s The Current, Kelley Lee, Canada Research Chair in global health governance at Simon Fraser University, called the government’s response “reactive,” because the Indian variant had already arrived in Canada weeks ago.
“If there’s a gold standard of how a country can manage its borders to curb the spread of COVID-19, Ottawa hasn’t met it yet,” said Lee. “I’d say maybe Canada is like a bronze medal standard, possibly.”
Countries that shut down their borders early have controlled the virus:
The early border restrictors included Taiwan, Vietnam, China, Australia, New Zealand and Singapore, and none have experienced continuous lockdowns or even third waves.
By locking out the virus with effective border controls, these nations simultaneously protected public health and shielded their economies — a lesson Canada has not yet appreciated.
What is involved in controlling borders? Several things matter:
1. Timing matters. Border controls must be proactive, not reactive. Their goal is to prevent trouble. A nation can only do that by being prepared and acting quickly. Canada, for example, restricted non-essential travel in March 2020, but it wasn’t until early this year that mandatory testing and quarantine in government-managed hotels were set up. By then, variants from the U.K. and Brazil were already circulating widely in the community.
2. Take universal measures. Countries that have mostly stopped the virus at the border have applied screening, quarantines and testing to most, if not all travellers. “They didn’t have people slipping through the gaps,” said Piper.
3. A multi-layered approach secures the border. Given the pace and scale of globalization, novel pathogens will always show up at the doorstep, but they don’t have to invade the house if a layer of interventions secures the way.
Discouraging all non-essential travel is the first protection. Repeated testing and screening all travellers before, at and within the border forms the next layer of defence. The third consists of a well-enforced quarantine program that applies to most everyone.
Canada’s current three-day hotel quarantine is only for air travellers, followed by home quarantine. Much of Europe only applied restrictions haphazardly, and often had no testing or quarantine protocols until the second wave. In contrast, Australia and New Zealand have had a mandatory 14-day quarantine enforced by the police or the military since the beginning of the pandemic. Hong Kong insists on 21 days.
Vietnam, a nation of 97 million that borders China, stands out as singular example. Last March, it cancelled all inbound commercial flights. It then used a contact tracing system to track down cases, which never exceeded 110 a day. It also restricted travel within the country. Citizens that lived in a region with a high case rate weren’t allowed leave until cases had been suppressed in that region.
As a result, Vietnam achieved Zero COVID. It also recorded one of the highest economic growth rates in Asia last year. Limited air travel to low-risk neighbours — such as South Korea, Taiwan and Japan —has now resumed. Yet everyone arriving in Vietnam by air, sea or land must be tested and wait out a mandatory 14- to 21-day quarantine period.
It's clear that half measures don't work. It's not easy to be tough on a virus. But it's much easier to be tough at the beginning of a pandemic than it is later on in its run.
Image: CNN
6 comments:
Border controls should have been in place after the first wave. Once the variants are here, it's too late. We've already had local spread of the variants first identified in the UK, South Africa, Brazil and India, and as predicted, the UK variant is now the predominant strain.
Our current border controls are a joke. First, as the zero Covid countries have shown, a three-day hotel quarantine is grossly inadequate. Second, tens of thousands of travellers have avoided the three-day hotel stay imposed on air travellers by flying to nearby US airports and crossing the border by car. Third, the ban on flights from India and Pakistan applies only to direct flights. Fly via London or Dubai and you're good to go. Finally, far too many people are considered "essential workers" and exempt from hotel stays and quarantine. For example, you may be surprised to hear that insurance and stock brokers, teachers, plumbers, garbage collectors, janitors, dry cleaners, electricians and exterminators are considered essential. Basically, if you can't fit yourself into an essential category, you're likely unemployed or retired.
I wouldn't even consider our border controls to be half-measures. They're effectively non-existent.
Cap
We have prioritized the economy over COVID, Cap, and the results are obvious.
"We have prioritized the economy over COVID,"
Just like the climate crisis, eh?
But I think its actually...
We have prioritized the short-term economy over COVID
Anyone skillfully playing the 'long game' can see we are actually screwing the economy.
While I do think we could do better with border controls and travel restrictions, I would also note that the number of cases linked to travel is like 0.4%. Our real problem is containing the virus once it gets here, and it will always get here, just as it did with the countries listed as good examples. Like the Atlantic provinces and territories, the real difference is between going for eliminating Covid once it appears, and trying to manage it through mitigation efforts to slow the spread, but never actually eliminate the virus. It wasn't just the strict quarantines, because those failed at times. It was aggressive contact tracing and hard lockdowns to eliminate the outbreaks when they happened. Get to zero cases before reopening and you're in good shape. Simply slowing the spread so the immediate numbers don't look so bad and then reopening so that it can spread more readily again is clearly not the way to do things. But easier to blame travellers, particularly foreigners, for bringing their diseases here to play on xenophobes fears than do the hard work of actually containing the outbreaks already here. Even more so when your political base has a large contingent of, "but what about my freedoms!" protestors.
You're right, BJ. Strict measure from the very beginning is what makes the difference. But those measures should not be rooted in xenophobia.
Point well taken, PoV. Until we take the health crisis seriously, we will -- in the end -- sink the economy.
Post a Comment