I knew something was wrong. But I didn’t expect this.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in the U.S. this week moved France and Portugal to level four, the highest risk category on its travel health notices website page.
As of Tuesday, the CDC travel site lists France and Portugal in level four, which indicates a “very high” level of COVID-19. The other three levels used by the CDC are “high,” “moderate,” and “low.”
The Canadian government travel advisory site has four categories, “avoid all travel, ” “avoid non-essential travel,” “exercise a high degree of caution,” and “exercise normal security precautions.” The Canadian site last updated the France situation on Nov. 28 and placed the country in level two, “exercise a high degree of caution.” The Portugal category also was last updated on Nov. 28, with the Canadian government placing Portugal in level one, “exercise normal security precautions.”
I thought it was startling to see such a difference in how a country is gauged by Canada and the U.S., especially in the case of Portugal, where the U.S. has the country at level four and Canada at level one.
The U.S. site lists 83 countries at level four and 56 countries at level three. But the Canadian site has only 17 countries at level four and another 17 at level three.
This seemed totally out of whack to me. So, I contacted the Toronto Star, my former employer of 32 years. The Star wrote a story on the subject that appeared in their Dec. 9 edition.
Correspondent Raisa Patel explains that the differences in the two country’s advisories is because Canada’s system is based on security issues, such as terrorism or civil unrest, and not, like the CDC site, based on COVID-19.
Asked for comment, Transport Minister Omar Alghabra told the Star that Canada doesn’t have a ranking like the CDC, “but we have a different type of system.”
“First, I’ll tell you why: we have a universal layers of protection that applies to travelers coming from everywhere, which you know; the PCR predeparture test, the vaccination requirement, and then the random mandatory testing. So we feel that that is really the best way to protect against variations. The additional measures that we added now, the temporary ones for the 10 countries are to reduce, to add an extra layer to reduce volume coming from countries where there’s community report of transmission. But we don’t have a permanent list.
“Because it is just, it’s hard, you know, to keep a list that changes all the time,” he said. “That’s why we’re putting protective layers that applies to everywhere for all travellers.”
This is appalling. First off, the government isn’t doing its job if the travel advice page doesn’t take COVID-19 into account.
Alghabra is also wrong about it being too hard to keep a list that changes all the time. If you look at the Canadian site, the ranking for every destination on the list (except Antarctica) was updated yesterday or today.
The problem isn’t that it’s too hard. It’s that the Canadian government doesn’t seem to take COVID into account in its travel advisories. But it’s supposed to.
This is what the Canadian government’s website says under Travel Advice and Advisories: “The Travel Advice and Advisories are the Government of Canada’s official source of destination-specific travel information. They give you important advice to help you to make informed decisions and to travel safely while you are abroad.”
A short distance down the page it says Canadians should click on a destination “to see regularly updated information on
- local safety and security conditions and areas to avoid
- entry and exit requirements
- local laws and culture
- possible health hazards and health restrictions
- natural hazards and climate
- where to find help while you are travelling abroad”
RIGHT THERE in black and white, it says that possible health hazards are one of the types of information Canadians can find out about. Except not, I guess, health hazards regarding a deadly, worldwide pandemic that’s been going on for almost two years.
In fairness, the top of the travel advice page has a large headline about COVID-19. The site states that “a new variant of concern of the SARS-CoV-2 virus that causes COVID-19, Omicron, has been detected in several countries.”
It also says the government of Canada “is advising Canadians to exercise extra caution. Be sure to check for information on the presence of this new variant at your destination, which could impact your ability to return to Canada.”
“Community transmission of COVID-19 continues in many countries,” the site states.
That’s useful. But then if you go to the list of destinations, the rankings don’t take COVID-19 cases or hospitalizations or death rates into account.
“I, quite frankly, don’t have much faith in the Canadian government’s travel advisories generally, let alone for COVID,” Dr. Prabhat Jha, an epidemiologist and professor of global health at the University of Toronto, told the Star. “I think the sensible thing is Canadians should check the CDC or the (World Health Organization) websites if they want COVID information.”
Pretty sad. But the good doctor is right.
