Thought of the Day - July 20 - The Plane Truth

Without being too xenophobic, I, for one, was glad to hear that the Canada-US border restrictions were being extended to August 21st as good news (Thought of the Day - June-4 - Border Restrictions). Here in Canada, we have managed to do better than most in minimizing the level of COVID-19 outbreaks across the country. That said, we still need time, policy and commitment to be ready for future waves of infection both in the containment and treatment (Thought of the Day - July 19 - By The Numbers).

And, as we have seen in the past week, our national borders are a big issue. Recently there was the debacle in the newly anointed "Atlantic Province Bubble". The starting point of the outbreak was a man in his 20s who had travelled to Nova Scotia, and then to P.E.I. and appears to have contracted COVID-19 from someone there who had recently been in the U.S. The man who spread the disease travelled from the United States to Toronto, then transferred to a flight to Halifax. Under the circumstances, he was supposed to self-isolate but did not. The person who had been to the U.S. was travelling on a student visa and was on his way to P.E.I.. While he was denied entry at the Confederation Bridge, because he did not have the required pre-screening approval, the second person was not (I think I have that right, dang this is difficult).

And now: BC CDC is warning about two more flights that had passengers infected COVID-19 on board. Both of the flights happened on July 13 and involved Vancouver International Airport. One of the flights, Air Canada flight 111, originated in Toronto and landed in Vancouver, the other, Air Canada flight 8073, departed Vancouver and landed in Victoria.

B.C. health officials no longer directly contact people who were seated near a confirmed case of COVID-19 on a domestic flight. Instead, the BCCDC provides updates on flights with confirmed cases as it becomes aware of them. More information on recent exposures can be found on the BCCDC website (Thought of the Day - July-3 - Public Service Announcement). Saturday's update comes at the end of a week in which eight flights involving B.C. airports were added to the BCCDC's list of coronavirus exposures.

On Tuesday, provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry called for improvements to screening, cancellation policies and information sharing, adding that contact tracing cases linked to air travel has proved challenging. "One of the most challenging things we do is trying to get flight manifests a couple of days later when we recognize somebody who might be ill. The type of information on those flight manifests is often not very helpful in trying to follow up with people," Henry said.

The main problem seems to be, while a number of provinces are doing laudable jobs in preventing infection, travel from foreign countries, especially via airlines, is outside their purview. So as well as not having an influence on the protocols, also there is a lag in information exchange.

Cheers

Cliff