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From January 5, all travelers from China, Hong Kong and Macau, who are facing a large wave of COVID-19 contaminations, will have to present a negative result for COVID-19.
The Government of Canada justifies the application of this measure by “the sudden increase in COVID-19 cases in the People’s Republic of China, and by the limited virus-related epidemiological and genomic sequencing data regarding these cases,” Ottawa said in a statement.
“Our actions are dictated by caution and measures will be adapted accordingly,” Canadian Health Minister Jean-Yves Duclos said on Twitter Saturday evening.
In recent weeks, the number of infections has spread across China. The country’s “zero COVID-19” policy since the beginning of 2020 has been quickly dismantled. Recognizing that it was “impossible” to follow the evolution of the epidemic, since Sunday, the country has stopped publishing daily data on the health situation.
The lack of sequencing of COVID-19 cases in China to identify new variants is of concern to many experts. In an interview with Journalism Wed, drDr Caroline Quach, a pediatrician and infectious disease microbiologist at CHU Sainte-Justine and professor at the University of Montreal, admits that she is not convinced that border measures will change the picture of the situation. “The variables we’re trying to rein in are probably already on our doorstep,” she says.
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