Lessons from a Pandemic: There are already lessons to be learned from Canada’s response to COVID-19, as well as time to act upon them before the feared second wave hits
What went wrong? What can Canada do to fix it before the next wave hits? This detailed look at Canada’s delayed response to the coronavirus outbreak is part of the Post’s ongoing Lessons from a Pandemic series.
Today, 16 weeks after Leis looked at those cloud-like, fluffy patches on the lungs of Canada’s patient zero, the first imported case of what would later be called COVID-19 to arrive on Canada’s shores, we’re still grasping for words to describe what we’ve been through — and what may still come. Chief among them, that Canada was slow to recognize the magnitude of the threat posed by an unfeeling virus. Canadian health officials continued to stress the risk to Canadians was low into the second week of March, even though many scientists were saying otherwise and nervously eyeing the carnage unfolding in Italy. Ontario Premier Doug Ford told families to “go away, have a good time, enjoy yourself” on March Break. Travel restrictions came late.
“In retrospect, we could have closed the USA border earlier, and restricted all incoming flights to Canada to a handful of airports earlier, descending upon those airports with overwhelming public health powers,” including mandatory testing and quarantining of all travellers from China and Europe, University of Ottawa global health epidemiologist Raywat Deonandan wrote in an email. Preventing people from going abroad for March Break also could have helped.
There were moments of “do as I say, not as I do.” Ontario Premier Doug Ford visited his Muskoka cottage on Easter Sunday to check the plumbing after appealing to Ontarians to stay home. Trudeau crossed the river into Quebec over Easter to visit his family at Harrington Lake, the official country home of the prime minister, posing with his wife, Sophie Gregoire Trudeau, and their children, for a cheery Instagram selfie after telling Canadians, “This long weekend, we all have to stay home.
Each death has been an “incalculable tragedy,” Tam told MPs in early May, the pandemic “the most challenging and shape-shifting event in our collective careers.” The provinces that reacted sooner to keep infections down, like British Columbia and Alberta, lessened excess deaths. The epidemic growth is slowing; there’s a levelling of the trajectories across most jurisdictions in Canada. Our total case counts are increasing more slowly than most countries.
Canada needs a guaranteed supply chain for PPE, drugs and ventilators. The days of hospitals with 120 per cent bed occupancy have to end, Drummond says. There are concerns that as hospitals begin tackling surgery backlogs, they could become overloaded again, unable to withstand a substantial second wave. We need to focus on the vulnerable first, and integrate long term care facilities into an overall strategy. And as restrictions are relaxed, we need to evaluate which ones were most effective.
Jan. 23: Chinese authorities close off Wuhan, cancelling planes and trains leaving Wuhan, suspending buses, subway and ferry services; second city in China, Huanggang, placed in lockdown. Feb. 6: Tam recommends all travellers returning from Hubei province to stay at home and limit contact with others for 14 days. By now, the U.S., Japan, Philippines, New Zealand and Australia have closed their borders to foreign travellers from China.Feb. 20: Canada reports its first case related to travel outside China in a traveller from Iran.
March 9: Italy expands quarantine from the Lombardy region to entire country as Italy’s case counts surge. Canada’s Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland writes to provincial and territorial premiers asking them to tell federal government of any critical gaps in supplies or capacity to deal with the pandemic. Canada begins importing cases from India, the U.K. and the U.S. Evidence grows the virus can be spread by people before they develop symptoms.
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