Friction with Americans continues
“This case, along with a number of reports of people from outside of the Atlantic bubble coming in and not self-isolating, has sparked a lot of questions and concerns about the Canada-U.S. border and about our own border and I am as frustrated as all of you,” said McNeil during a news conference in Halifax on Monday.
“We have worked hard together and sacrificed so much in this province to help flatten the curve only to have some people come into our province who think they’re above it all, who think that the rules don’t apply to them. Guess what? They do.”
The provincial government says the man who tested positive for COVID-19 does not live in Nova Scotia. He flew in from the United States to Toronto and was cleared to board a flight to Halifax. He arrived in Nova Scotia on June 26 with the intention of travelling to Prince Edward Island.
Strang confirmed that the latest case in Nova Scotia is connected to some of the new cases reported in P.E.I. over the weekend. “Following contact tracing by Prince Edward Island, related to their new COVID-19 cases, we were notified on Saturday that one of those individuals in P.E.I. had been in close contact with someone who had recently travelled into Nova Scotia from the United States and was still here in Nova Scotia,” said Strang. “We contacted that individual on Saturday and arranged testing.” The man is now being quarantined under federal authority at a Halifax-area hotel.
Quarantine hotels seem like a good idea, however that's how Melbourne got Australia back in trouble :/
https://www.ctvnews.ca/world/australia-s-second-largest-city-foils-nation-s-pandemic-success-1.5013577
Most if not all the blame is being directed at lax controls at quarantine centres set up in two Melbourne hotels. Australian citizens and permanent residents returning from overseas are required to spend 14 days in strict hotel quarantine. Genomic sequencing that identities which virus strains are circulating in specific clusters indicates the city's expanding outbreak is emerging from hotel quarantine guards and guests.
Australia's response, dunno whether that would work here:
About 3,000 residents of nine public housing high-rise buildings were given just an hour's notice at the weekend before being prohibited from leaving their apartments for at least five days. "The amount of police officers makes us feel like we're criminals," said a resident of one of the buildings, Nada Osman. "It's overwhelming. It's scary. It's like we're caged in."
Forty suburbs that are virus hot spots have been locked down by postal code since last week, with the result that businesses and households in some areas face restrictions while ones across the street from them do not.
In Nova Scotia they'll start checking daily to see if people quarantine
“Clearly some people who say that they will be self-isolating, but aren’t, and they are putting all of us at risk, and this is not acceptable,” said the premier. As a result, the province is now ramping up its surveillance of visitors who come from outside the Atlantic region.
Travellers who do not live in the Atlantic provinces will now be required to provide the address of where they will be self-isolating and a phone number where they can be reached. Starting Tuesday, a form will be available online that travellers from outside the Atlantic region must fill out and present at the border.
“There will be follow-up calls every day for 14 days. If we can’t locate them after three tries, police will be called in to do an in-person check to make sure that that person is self-isolating where they said they would be,” said McNeil. “We know we have work to do and we’re in the process of ensuring that all of those who come in outside of the Atlantic bubble will be self-isolating within our province.”
Will that be enough...
Essay Pro