Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says Canada won’t ban foreign travellers arriving from countries grappling with COVID-19 outbreaks, adding that “knee-jerk reactions” won’t help to stop the spread of the virus.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says Canada won’t ban foreign travellers arriving from countries grappling with COVID-19 outbreaks, adding that “knee-jerk reactions” won’t help to stop the spread of the virus.
Canada’s approach differs from the protocols adopted by some of our closest allies.
U.S. President Donald Trump has claimed the United States is experiencing a low number of infections because it sealed its borders to travellers coming from outbreak-affected countries.
With approximately 100,000 CoronaVirus cases worldwide, and 3,280 deaths, the United States, because of quick action on closing our borders, has, as of now, only 129 cases (40 Americans brought in) and 11 deaths. We are working very hard to keep these numbers as low as possible!
Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison announced Thursday that coronavirus-related travel bans on foreigners coming from China and Iran will be extended to South Korea.
Australian citizens and permanent residents from those countries can enter Australia, but will be required to self-isolate for two weeks.
Trudeau was asked today if Canada would take similar steps.
“We recognize there are countries that make different decisions. The decisions we make are based on the best recommendations of the World Health Organization (WHO) and the tremendous health experts who work within Canada and around the world,” he told reporters after an event in Toronto.
“We know that keeping Canadians safe needs to be done in the right way and we’re going to keep doing things that actually keep Canadians safe. There is a lot of misinformation out there, there is a lot of knee-jerk reaction that isn’t keeping people safe. That is having real, challenging impacts