According to the Committee of Experts: Passenger detention must end

Very expensive, easily preventable and not effective enough, travelers should leave mandatory hotel restraint, as recommended by a team of federal government experts.

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The committee, set up by the Ministry of Health in 2020, reported a number of issues that are mandatory in the three-day detention introduced in February. He said he was in favor of giving it up.

Travelers returning from the United States via the land border are not required to comply and some prefer to pay a $ 3,000 fine rather than following protocol, the report said.

Experts describe the “high” administrative costs and “substantial” resources devoted to maintaining this measure.

In addition, the three-day quarantine is “different from the incubation period of SARS-CoV-2” so it is questionable from a health perspective, varying from 2 to 14 days.

A search shared by Roxanne Borges da Silva, a professor of public health at the University of Montreal, emphasized that infected people could go under the radar at the airport before they arrived at the hotel.

At home

The committee said travelers should still attend and adhere to an adequate home control plan.

Ottawa should continue to test positive cases among international travelers to prevent the spread of variants.

He recommended that, as in the United States, fully vaccinated international travelers do not need quarantine, which would have a negative effect on departure.

In a press release, Ottawa welcomed the report and its recommendations. The latter is taken into account to change the actions at the border in accordance with the progress of vaccinations.