Thought of the Day - December 17 2021 - No More Holiday Travel

It has been a busy week for bureaucrats as they do their final preparations for the holiday season and the arrival of Omicron. At the start of the week Canada began reconsidering its travel ban on the ten African countries, amid questions over the government’s rationale and calls for it to be lifted. I guess the point that was missed is while the southern African ban could not halt the Omicron spread, it might just delay it slightly, providing time for Canada to get ready ( Thought of the Day - November 29 2021 - Is the New Variant Great News ). In conclusion, the restrictions will be lifted tomorrow night.

At the same time, a hastily arranged 90-minute teleconference was convened by Trudeau Tuesday to tell premiers that Ottawa was considering the re-introduction of a mandatory 14-day quarantine on all incoming non-essential travellers, regardless of vaccination status or nationality, and planning to impose an outright ban on all non-essential inbound foreign nationals.

Wednesday Health Minister Duclos announced Canada would re-introduce a travel advisory recommending that no Canadian travel abroad unless absolutely necessary. In addition, the moratorium on testing for short-term trips will be repealed as of next Tuesday. In short, all people arriving in Canada will once again need to have a PCR test.

One of the concerns expressed by the premiers was that a public already weary of public health restrictions and will resist new rules imposed by politicians with little support. Of course while critical of the Federal approach, provinces are rapidly following suit, also now advising against inter-provincial and even intra-provincial travel.

Unfortunately, there has been little discussion on the best way to combat Canada's Delta-driven east coast fifth wave; as predicted, case rates are now higher than the peak of our fourth wave ( Thought of the Day - December 12 2021 - By the Numbers ). One suggestion, that has some merit, is to encourage the less symptomatic Omicron (at present Omicron is probably about 15% of cases in Canada) - but along with this, essential services will need to be ramped up. Preparation must be made for when a significant proportion of essential service workers start testing positive.

So what are the takeaways from this week:

1. There were really no new elements announced to combat Canada's current fifth wave or to prepare for the inevitable Omicron spread to follow; for now just the reintroduction of travel restrictions, venue size reductions, along with booster promotion.

2. That said, travel is going to get even messier over the holiday season. There will be tighter and ever-changing restrictions on non-essential travel, a greater insistence on testing and possibly even quarantine for all.

Cheers

Cliff