In a message contradicting that of the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA), Federal Public Health asks travelers to ignore the few quarantine instructions sent by mistake by the ArriveCAN application.
“In the meantime, fully immunized travelers who have completed the ArriveCAN form and who mistakenly receive quarantine notices are not required to self-quarantine,” the Public Health Agency of Canada writes to travelers affected by the missed the mandatory form to enter the country.
The message obtained by The duty, dated Thursday, leaves no room for ambiguity: a returnee who has indeed received at least two doses of the COVID-19 vaccine does not risk a $5,000 fine for a simple bug computer science.
The duty revealed in early July that the ArriveCAN app imposes a 14-day quarantine on some travelers who duly complete the form. The application falsely considers that the person is not vaccinated against COVID-19 and that he must therefore isolate himself and complete a questionnaire on the symptoms, in particular, at the risk of being fined.
This is what happened to Xavier Minot, who returned from France on Thursday with his family. Although all received three doses of the COVID-19 vaccine and this information was correctly entered into the system, they still received messages asking them to self-isolate at home.
“I don’t see why I would take all the steps, stop working for 15 days, when we followed all the rules,” he testifies. Mr. Minot was finally able to reach a federal agent on the phone on Friday, who told him to ignore this order.
Ottawa acknowledges that a technical issue affected “less than 3% of users and appears to be related to the use of an Apple iOS device”. We are assured that an update was made on Wednesday to resolve this problem.
No official response
Federal Public Health redirects all questions about ArriveCAN to CBSA. Despite several attempts to obtain an answer, it was still impossible at the time these lines were written to have it confirmed through official channels that a person victim of this quack can ignore this erroneously required quarantine.
“Fully vaccinated travelers who have completed the ArriveCAN form and received a quarantine notice in error should still respond to phone calls they receive, and provide factual answers and/or follow the recommendations of any government official. Canada they’re talking to,” said CBSA spokesperson Rebecca Purdy.
She later said she was unable “to give a definite yes or no answer. [à la question de savoir si une personne doit respecter une mise en quarantaine reçue par erreur]because each traveler presents himself in different circumstances, with varying levels of information”.
Those affected by this issue are advised to contact Federal Public Health, which may take several days. It merely confirms that the notice was sent incorrectly, along with the verdict: “You are not required to quarantine yourself. »
The CBSA informed the To have to that she needed more than a day, Friday, to be able to indicate what factors go into determining whether or not someone should comply with a quarantine requested in error even if they meet all the entry criteria .
From the very beginning of the implementation of border measures until July 1, 1088 statements of offense were issued in Quebec for non-compliance with instructions upon arrival in the country, for a total of 4.4 millions of dollars. The vast majority of these reports were issued in Montreal (812), followed by Terrebonne (92) and Quebec (30).