Doctors slam Canada's negative COVID test requirement for travellers from China
Some Canadian doctors are condemning the Canadian government’s decision to require negative COVID-19 tests for travellers coming from China.
Ottawa announced the measures Saturday afternoon amid surging cases of the infectious disease in China.
The policy applies to all air passengers who are two years of age and older on flights originating from Mainland China, as well as Hong Kong and Macau.
Similar to Canada’s previous policies earlier in the pandemic, the required negative test — negative molecular, such as a PCR test, or a negative antigen test — must be taken no more than two days before departure and submitted to the airline before boarding.
Canadian health professionals took to Twitter, slamming the federal government’s decision.
“So… the highly immune evasive XBB15 variant was first detected in New York & is spreading rapidly in the US… but Canada will require a [negative] COVID test for air travellers from China?” tweeted Dr. Amit Arya, a palliative care physician on the faculty of medicine at University of Toronto.
“This won’t control the spread of COVID. Instead, it will make xenophobia and anti-Asian hate worse.”
So…the highly immune evasive #XBB15 variant was first detected in New York & is spreading rapidly in the US…but Canada will require a -ve COVID test for air travellers from China?
This won’t control the spread of COVID. Instead, it will make xenophobia & anti-Asian hate worse.
— Dr. Amit Arya (@AmitAryaMD) January 2, 2023
For those who haven’t been keeping track, XBB.1.5 is Omicron’s latest variant.
According to The Guardian, the new strain is said to have emerged in and around New York state in late October and now accounts for about 40% of infections in the US, making it the new dominant COVID variant.
Based on these numbers, Dr. Fahad Razak, who specializes in internal medicine at Unity Health Toronto, questioned whether visitors from the US would also need to be screened.
“Disappointing move — no clear scientific rationale for this (or endpoint) and xenophobic — will further undercut transparency between countries,” he tweeted.
“Also, given US XBB surge is the most immediate threat will we screen all US visitors as well now?”
Disappointing move – no clear scientific rationale for this (or endpoint) and xenophobic – will further undercut transparency between countries. Also, given US XBB surge is most immediate threat will we screen all US visitors as well now? https://t.co/wzmRsKRGMF
— Fahad Razak (@DrFahadRazak) December 31, 2022
Dr. Marie-Claude Grégoire agreed.
“Let’s be racist in 🇨🇦 too and single out one country when we do nothing to prevent infection transmission on domestic flights or flights coming from high incidence countries like the USA,” she tweeted.
There you go. Let’s be racist in 🇨🇦 too and single out one country, when we do nothing to prevent infection transmission on domestic flights or flights coming from high incidence countries like USA. https://t.co/iSYIfwLE3Z
— Dr. Marie-Claude Grégoire (@DrMCGregoire) December 31, 2022
This temporary requirement will go into effect starting at 12:01 EST on Thursday, January 5, 2023. It applies to all travellers, regardless of nationality and vaccination status.
The mandatory negative test requirement will be in place for 30 days, at which point its continuation will be reassessed based on the developing pandemic situation in China.
This new policy closely follows the precautionary testing policies put in place by other countries earlier this week, including the United States, United Kingdom, and Japan.
“The safety of travellers and the transportation industry remain top priorities,” said Omar Alghabra, the Canadian minister of transport, in a statement.
The Chinese Government threatened countermeasures against countries who have implemented what it says are “unacceptable” COVID requirements that “lack scientific basis” at a daily briefing on Tuesday.
There are growing concerns over the severity of the pandemic in China ever since the Chinese government relaxed nearly all of its strict “Zero COVID” measures early this month in response to widespread nationwide protests over the prolonged limit to freedoms and the impact on the economy.
According to a report by Bloomberg, based on internal documents by the Chinese government, it is estimated about 250 million people in China — about one-fifth of the country’s population — may have caught COVID-19 over the first 20 days of December.
With files from Kenneth Chan
Follow Channels and Categories