(Ottawa) Unlike the United States, Canada is not considering imposing entry restrictions on its territory for travelers from China, which is facing a major wave of COVID-19 contamination.
“Travellers continue to be advised to take special health precautions and follow public health measures at their points of entry,” The Press Mark Johnson, spokesperson for the Public Health Agency of Canada.
The United States, Japan, Taiwan and Italy announced on Tuesday and Wednesday that they would impose new entry restrictions on travelers from China, while several other countries such as France are considering doing the same.
In recent weeks, the number of infections has exploded across China. The “zero COVID-19” policy practiced by the country since the beginning of 2020 was quickly dismantled. Admitting that it was “impossible” to follow the evolution of the epidemic, the country has since Sunday stopped publishing daily data on the health situation.
Beware of variants
The lack of sequencing of COVID-19 cases in China, allowing the identification of new variants, is concerning for countries around the world, says Nathalie Grandvaux, researcher at the Laboratory for Research on Host Response to Viral Infections. of the CHUM.
According to her, Canada has “almost no choice” to impose new restrictions for travelers from China. She suggests mandatory testing to identify possible new variants.
I think there is a huge wave in China, so we have to put measures in place to find out if we have any variants that come in with PCR tests.
Nathalie Grandvaux, researcher at the CHUM’s Host Response to Viral Infections Research Laboratory
She maintains that after almost three years of pandemic, the epidemiological situation in Canada has arrived “at a fragile balance”. “This balance holds because we are only dealing with variants descended from Omicron. If we have another variant that arrives and that bypasses the vaccine immunity that we have managed to establish here, it is certain that we will leave [vers une hausse] “, she says.
The Public Health Agency of Canada, for its part, assures that the country continues to “monitor signals of increased risk or spread of variants of concern in Canada”.
“A little bit hypocritical”
“With 1.5 billion people at risk of becoming infected and spreading the virus”, the situation in China is worrying, also judges the Dr Donald Vinh, infectious disease specialist and microbiologist at the McGill University Health Center. Moreover, since China is withdrawing its measures in bulk, the risk of new variants being developed increases “very exponentially”, he says.
However, he recalls that the appearance of new variants occurs regularly throughout the world and that many countries do not apply border measures.
In Canada, we have slowly relaxed the measures and we see that we have development of variants here too. You have to be naive to think that it’s only in China that this can happen.
The Dr Donald Vinh, infectious disease specialist and microbiologist at the McGill University Health Center
The United States announced on Wednesday that a negative COVID-19 test will be required starting Jan. 5 for all travelers flying in from China. “We are implementing measures against China to combat their variants, but to date, we have not heard anything about the measures that the United States will implement to combat their own variants,” says the Dr Vinh, calling their decision a “little bit hypocritical”.
For its part, the DD Caroline Quach, pediatrician and microbiologist-infectiologist at the CHU Sainte-Justine and professor at the University of Montreal, “is not convinced” that the border measures will change the portrait of the situation. “Probably the variants that we’re trying to curb are already on our doorstep,” she says.
She admits that with the high transmission of the virus in China, “we are much more at risk of having a case that arrives in travels”. However, she believes that in Quebec, “we are relatively well vaccinated and we have a hybrid immunity that should protect us against serious illnesses”.
Several countries are considering measures
Japan will also make it mandatory for Chinese travelers to test negative for COVID-19 from Friday, in addition to limiting direct flights from Hong Kong. The Hong Kong Department of Transport said it was “strongly disappointed by this hasty decision by the Japanese authorities during the peak tourist season”.
The island of Taiwan, which China claims as part of its territory, also announced that it would carry out virus checks on travelers from the mainland.
Italy is considering mandatory testing for all travelers from China, the Italian health ministry announced on Wednesday. The region of Lombardy, in the north of the country, already introduced this measure on Wednesday, which will continue at least until January 30.
For his part, the President of France, Emmanuel Macron, asked the government “for appropriate protective measures”.
With Agence France-Presse
Towards a shortage of pharmaceutical products?
Hit by an unexpected wave of COVID-19, China lacks fever medicine. Pharmaceutical companies have even been requisitioned to meet the demand. In Europe, experts fear that this sudden increase in cases could unbalance the drug reserves in their country. Could we be short of analgesics in Quebec? It’s possible, but not in the short term, answers the general manager of the Quebec Association of Pharmacy Distributors, Hugues Mousseau. China is a major producer of active pharmaceutical ingredients used in the manufacture of drugs. In the event of a drop in Chinese supply, North American manufacturers would feel the impacts before consumers, explains Mr. Mousseau. For the moment, no disruption is anticipated in the supply to pharmacies and hospitals in the coming weeks. In the longer term, however, it is difficult to predict the repercussions of the lifting of health restrictions in China, but distributors are monitoring the situation closely, adds Hugues Mousseau. In the worst case scenario, some products might be harder to find on the shelves. “Distributors have supply strategies that are proven to avoid an impact on consumers,” assures Mr. Mousseau.
Lea Carrier, The Press