(Quebec) The Legault government is sounding the alarm with an increase in COVID-19 cases among travelers entering Quebec. Minister Christian Duby called on Ottawa to ensure “strict and diligent quarantine control” and called on it to “reconsider” the return of compulsory hotel stays.
The Minister of Health challenged his counterpart Patty Hajdu on the issue of borders. Effective July 5, suitably vaccinated travelers who are eligible to enter Canada are exempt from quarantine procedures. The screening test on arrival in Canada is always conditional on entry into the country.
” On [veut revenir] With stricter rules because we don’t have control over it and we saw how it hurt us during the first wave, and I don’t want us to play again in the same movie,” Minister Dube explained on the sidelines of an announcement in La Prairie, Friday.
In a letter sent on Thursday to MI Hadjo Q Journalism He was able to consult, Minister Dubey deplores it on the weekend of July 31 to 1He is In August alone, 60 positive cases were identified among travelers in Quebec. Of this number, 68% have not been adequately vaccinated.
Photo by Jacques Poissnot, The Canadian Press
Christian Dube
Public Health Montreal revealed, Thursday, that a third of the new infections identified in Montreal came from “travelers outside Canada.”
Minister Dube wrote: “Public health authorities have expressed some concern about this increase in cases in the context of the circulation of the delta variant, which has been detected mainly in travelers in Quebec.”
Minister Dube notes the delay in transmitting positive results from travelers at the federal government airport to regional public health directorates, which can be up to seven days.
“These delays mean that travelers who have a positive test result and are exempted from quarantine procedures can be carriers of transmission in the population. This delay compromises case management and potential contacts of these travelers by public health authorities and may contribute to increased transmission of the virus in the community.” The minister explains in his letter.
And calls for the need to “take measures” to reduce this delay. Mr. Dube also emphasized that the sampling facilities at the airport “do not appear to be optimal to allow passengers to move and queue safely in accordance with sanitary procedures”.
The Canadian border has reopened to vaccinated American travelers since August 9 and must open to the rest of the world on September 7. Therefore, the number of passengers at the airports is expected to increase. Travelers are no longer required to book a three-night hotel stay upon arrival in the country.
Quebec is asking Ottawa to “consider reintroducing” this mandatory quarantine if the federal government cannot “ensure strict and diligent quarantine control of all travelers who have not been adequately vaccinated”.
Children and dependents who have not been fully vaccinated must be subject to quarantine, and this is also the case for visitors entering Canada on humanitarian grounds in particular.