Feburary
COVID-19 (2020) Pandemic
Timeline : February 2020
February 3rd, 2020:
In the House of Commons, MP Matt Jeneroux brings up the fact that “Other countries are taking proactive measures by declaring a public health emergency. Other countries are cancelling all flights into and out of China. The United States said it is implementing these measures to increase its ability to detect and contain the coronavirus. Why has Canada not done the same?” (Staples, 2020b).
Patty Hajdu replies to Jeneroux by stating, “Here in Canada we have very different processes in place than in the United States. For example, we do not need to call a public health emergency here because we already have the structures, the systems and the authorities to spend appropriate dollars necessary to respond, treat and maintain our public health systems” (Staples, 2020b).
She continues to scold the opposition's MPs by elaborating, “One of the interesting elements of the coronavirus outbreak has been the spread of misinformation and fear across Canadian society ... One way might be if the opposition does not sensationalize the risk to Canadians and allows Canadians to understand where they can find a wealth of information” (Staples, 2020b).
During the Health Committee, MP Don Davies discusses the newly implemented emergency measures the US has put in place for all passengers from China. In regard to all of this, Davies asks Dr. Thesera Tam, "In light of your comment earlier that the time to contain is now — I think that was your wording — and that it’s very important that we get a good grip now, shouldn’t Canada be taking similar protective measures now, following the precautionary principle, to make sure we’re doing everything we can to contain this virus at the earliest possible opportunity? If not, why not? Why aren’t we doing that?” (Staples, 2020b).
Dr. Tam replies in defence of the current Canadian policy for the screening of passengers from Hubei regions who are expressing COVID-19 symptoms. She continues on to affirm that the most important place for containment is from its source in China.
From here, MP Luc Thériault asks Dr. Tam about her prior comments mentioning that stricter border controls could lead to greater harm than good.
Dr. Tam responds with, “The reason the World Health Organization doesn’t recommend something like this is that, in general, it may do more harm than good ... I think the idea is to support China. Obviously, the number of flights has already been reduced, because nobody is actually going to China, but Canada has not closed its borders. It’s using these layers of measures to screen people coming in, in order to keep movement across the border ... As I said, the border measures that are most effective are at source, in China“ (Staples, 2020b).
February 4th, 2020:
Dr. Theresa tam wrote a letter to Patty Hadju in which she expresses that “There is a need to maintain public trust in Canada’s response to the Coronavirus. Currently there are perceived differences between advice to travellers from Hubei province on commercial flights and planned measures for repatriation from Wuhan, China” (Staples, 2020b).
February 9th, 2020:
Canada creates stricter policies for screening at airports by expanding the screening protocols to 10 airports across 6 of the provinces.
Maintaining the same voluntary self-isolation only to passengers expressing COVID-19 symptoms.
February 19th, 2020:
Canada now has a total of 8 COVID-19 cases (7 of which were confirmed to be traced from China).
Until this date, 58,000 people have travelled from China to Canada. 68 passengers were required for further examination during this time. From this group, 3 received a medical examination, the other 65 were sent home with an information pamphlet (Staples, 2020b).
February 20th, 2020:
Canada confirms first COVID-19 case traced outside of China
February 26th, 2020:
At Health Committee, MP Matt Jeneroux asks Dr. Tam about a prior comment she had made on February 24th, 2020. He notes that “[Dr. Tam] stated that the more countries are infected, the less effective and feasible it is to close our borders. I am curious if this is some sort of admittance that the government should have shut down the borders when China was — from what we understood at the time — the only country that was heavily infected” (Staples, 2020b).
Deputy Cheif Public Health Officer, Dr. Howard Njoo, replies to Jeneroux's point by stating, “Not at all. We certainly understand that border measures are just one layer in a multi-system approach to preventing and hopefully controlling the spread of COVID-19 in Canada. It’s never been understood or recognized that border measures alone will stop it. We know that with this disease — as with many other infectious diseases — there is something called an ‘incubation period.’ Someone could actually be harbouring the disease, virus or bacteria and come into Canada feeling totally well, having no symptoms at all, and then only declare and come forward with symptoms once they have actually entered the country” (Staples, 2020b).
He continues on to say, “We have contained the virus ... From a public health perspective, closing the borders has never proven to be effective in terms of stopping the spread or the introduction of disease into any country" (Staples, 2020b).
At this time, MP Jenny Kwan brings up the instance of an infected passenger from Iran that had recently arrived in BC, when airports were not screening anyone from Iran. She argues, “Given that this is the case, there are now notices in schools in British Columbia about this, precisely to the point…. Their screenings could be missed. A person could be asymptomatic or have mild symptoms and be missed because they are not travelling back from Hubei province, and now that person is in an area in British Columbia potentially wider than what we anticipated to begin with” (Staples, 2020b).
Dr. Njoo expresses that although the advice for self-isolation was only being given to passengers returning from the Hubei province, that similar advice is now being distributed to passengers coming from all 6 countries currently affected.
February 27th, 2020:
23 Chinese-Canadian doctors came together to sign a letter urging for stricter 14-day isolation for anyone returning from China or other affected countries into Canada.
They note that the current policies set in place by the Canadain Federal Government to quarantine only those from the epicentre in Wuhan who are expressing symptoms are not far enough to properly contain this outbreak.