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Starting on January 5th, travelers coming to Canada from China will need to show proof of a negative COVID-19 test taken no more than 48 hours prior to departure, to enter the country as China copes with an explosion of COVID-19 cases. With this announcement issued December 31st, Canada joins other nations that have implemented such restrictions.
The requirements, which took effect at 12:01 a.m. ET on Thursday, apply to all travelers aged 2 and older on Canadian-bound flights originating from the People’s Republic of China, Hong Kong or Macao. The temporary measure will be in place for 30 days and be reassessed as more data becomes available, the Canadian government said. The Canadian government said its new testing measure is “in response to the surge of COVID-19 in the People’s Republic of China and given the limited epidemiological and viral genomic sequence data available on these cases.”
Canadian Transport Minister Omar Alghabra said in a statement, “We will adapt our measures based on available data, the science, and the epidemiological situation in our country and globally to protect Canadians.”
An expert, Kerry Bowman, assistant professor at the University of Toronto’s Temerty Faculty of Medicine, says Canada’s requirement of a negative COVID-19 test of travelers from China will not help in preventing new variants or the spread of the virus, saying instead the requirement is a political move. He says a more effective measure is the testing of wastewater from airplanes and airports to check for the viral load and mutations, a move the Public Health Agency of Canada announced Saturday it would implement. A pilot project on wastewater testing from aircraft arriving from the People’s Republic of China, Hong Kong, and Macao will be initiated at Vancouver International Airport and expanded to Toronto Pearson International Airport, “to assess the COVID-19 prevalence from various regions of the world,” the statement from PHC said adding that samples are sequenced to monitor for novel variants. Vancouver’s airport authority noted there are no flights to Vancouver from Macao and said in an online statement, “The program announced today by the federal government builds on ongoing work at YVR.”
The alarming uncertainty around China’s COVID crisis comes as health officials around the world are scrambling to protect their own populations from possible new mutations which could emerge as the virus sweeps through China’s 1.4 billion residents. The UK and France have joined India, the United States, Japan, Italy and Taiwan in imposing mandatory Covid tests for travellers from China as the World Health Organisation urged Beijing to provide more data and regular updates on the countries alarming coronavirus situation being reported by non-government individuals, after China scrapped their zero-Covid policy. Just days after Italy began testing arrivals from China, it was found that 50 per cent of passengers tested positive for Covid at the Milan airport, indicating the spread of infection in China. The health authorities are sequencing the Milan tests to see if there are new variants. Spain, South Korea and Israel also require proof of a negative test for arrivals from China. Qatar, from Tuesday January 3rd, required travelers arriving from China to provide a negative COVID-19 test result taken within 48 hours of departure.
“WHO again asked for regular sharing of specific and real-time data on the epidemiological situation — including more genetic sequencing data, data on disease impact including hospitalisations, ICU admissions and deaths —and data on vaccinations delivered and vaccination status, especially in vulnerable people and those over 60 years old,” the global health agency said in a statement. Health risk analysis firm Airfinity, a Britain-based research firm, said it currently estimates 9,000 daily deaths and 1.8 million infections per day in China. Its model was based on data from China’s regional provinces, before changes to reporting infections were implemented, and combined with case growth rates from other former zero-Covid countries when they lifted restrictions. China said on Friday December 30th, all the Covid-19 data it has shared — including with the World Health Organization — has been transparent, despite its hospitals being overwhelmed and its official figures on infections and deaths being tiny compared with other countries.
Covid-19 has not disappeared and although after almost three years of living with the virus, many individuals are tired of thinking and hearing about it, 2022 has been the deadliest year of the COVID-19 pandemic for Saskatchewan thus far. The December 23rd Community Respiratory Illness Surveillance Program [CRISP] situation report propelled the annual count to 816. CRISP reports are published every two weeks, therefore an actual final count for 2022 will only become available this week. In 2021 the province reported 802 COVID-19 deaths, eclipsing the 153 deaths the province officially reported in 2020.
The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.
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