Coronavirus: Canadian border screening measures 'not great'

There isn’t a proper way to screen people at the Canada-U.S. border for coronavirus, health experts say.

The people who are currently passing through the border and are exempt from the country’s ban on non-essential travel, include thousands of essential workers such as doctors, nurses, truckers and airline crews reports Global News.

“There isn’t a magic solution for how to make our borders absolutely airtight,” said Dr. Michael Gardam, chief of staff at the Humber River Hospital in Toronto and an infectious diseases specialist.

Gardam noted that the screening measures used at Canada’s borders are ineffective. Currently officers are asking if travellers are feeling symptoms and observing them for any physical signs of the virus.

He says these steps are not effective because people may lie about their conditions and not all people show symptoms.

“We know from studies that have been done over the last few months that border screening measures are sort of 50/50,” Gardam said. “They’re not great.”

Gardam added that more effective measures would include taking peoples temperatures as they cross the border or when they board a plane because over the counter medications can eliminate certain symptoms.

“People can answer the questions honestly and not have a temperature and then develop symptoms five minutes after they cross the border,” he added.

The Canadian Border Services Agency (CBSA) released statistics revealing that about 317,000 people came into Canada in the first week of the new border measures. Close to half of the people who entered the country were commercial truck drivers who are essential workers.

“There is no practical way to do full screening at the border and expect that when you go to the grocery store, food is gonna be on the shelf,” said Drew Dilkens, the mayor of Windsor, Ontario.

Dilkens said that around 1,600 essential health-care employees cross between Windsor and Detroit on a virtually daily basis.

“We know, as the hospitals over there know acutely, that if something were to happen at the border that caused a hard stop, you would literally have entire hospitals that would have to close,” Dilkens said.

Michigan had 17,221 confirmed coronavirus cases as of Monday and has seen over 727 deaths. About a quarter of the cases and deaths have been confirmed in Detroit.

Windsor health officials are becoming worried as the number of cases in Michigan continues to rise.

Dr. Wajid Ahmed, who is a medical officer in the Windsor-Essex County Unit noted that local hospitals have recently been advised to ask health-care workers to choose if they would prefer to continue working in either Canada or the U.S.

Ahmed said that the move is to stop the virus from spreading across the border, but also to prevent it from spreading from hospital to hospital.

“If we can reduce the number of crossings, we can reduce the risk,” he said.

He added that there are not a lot of options for screening at the border especially because of asymptomatic carriers.

Ahmed still believes that the most effective strategy against the disease is to continue social distancing and adhering to recommendations given by health officials. He added that making health-care workers a priority for testing is critical.

When asked about the decision that health-care workers will have to make about staying on only one side of the border Prime Minister Trudeau said that local mayors and provincial premiers have to make “extremely difficult decisions” and he is sure they will do the best they can for their communities.