Canada bans flights from India and Pakistan for 30 days...
- Thread starter marksthrow
- Start date
we were able to enter canada for months right..but we didnt have our visas in hand..for me prsnlly,i applied for one in sept and received in feb.. anyway my intention of writinging that wasnt debating whether canada did the right thing or no by banning flights...my point was nobody should tell students that they should stay in their home country because everythings online.. students r taking precautions n following every quarantine rule that govt tells at the cost of their own money.. hope this clears it up..peace out
IMHO, this issue will become a political issue rather than a health issue. Political because this may be seen as discriminatory to certain sector. Also, banning direct flights while allowing transit flights doesn’t make any sense at all. Considering that there is a high risk of false negative result from a PCR test (https://medical.mit.edu/covid-19-updates/2020/07/when-should-i-be-tested). Consider this: Canada bans direct flight from country A. So travellers from country A will transit to country B. Even with just one infected from country A gets into that flight, the whole plane gets compromised, therefore compromising country B as well. So, the more pragmatic approach should be to ban all passenger filghts, regardless of origin in order to be politically correct.
The infection report we read or hear from the news every day does not guarantee accuracy. Each country’s report is limited to that country’s ability to test its residents. Some countries have the resources and the logistics to test more while some simply don’t. All data modelling doesn’t show data from population density and population movement. For example, Durham region in Ontario is a hotspot area despite it being a residential area. The reason is because Durham residents work outside of the region, thereby the risk of infection is high. People wearing masks did not really deter the viral infection. And anybody who have been here knows how many stay at home orders we’ve had. Did it stop the pandemic? Nope.
Viruses mutate, that’s true. But different places have different mutations. You cannot have the same mutation in two different places unless you import that mutation.
Outbreak starts with just one person, patient zero. When that person infects one or two, exponentiate that and you would have a predictive model. Now factor in one or two new infections coming in (if I’m not mistaken the data on incoming passengers who tested positive since January was around 3k or 1.4% of the total incoming passengers), and you have a potential outbreak.
If the whole world meticulously isolated even for just two continuous weeks, we wouldn’t have this pandemic now. But then, we cannot afford the whole world to stop even for a day...
The infection report we read or hear from the news every day does not guarantee accuracy. Each country’s report is limited to that country’s ability to test its residents. Some countries have the resources and the logistics to test more while some simply don’t. All data modelling doesn’t show data from population density and population movement. For example, Durham region in Ontario is a hotspot area despite it being a residential area. The reason is because Durham residents work outside of the region, thereby the risk of infection is high. People wearing masks did not really deter the viral infection. And anybody who have been here knows how many stay at home orders we’ve had. Did it stop the pandemic? Nope.
Viruses mutate, that’s true. But different places have different mutations. You cannot have the same mutation in two different places unless you import that mutation.
Outbreak starts with just one person, patient zero. When that person infects one or two, exponentiate that and you would have a predictive model. Now factor in one or two new infections coming in (if I’m not mistaken the data on incoming passengers who tested positive since January was around 3k or 1.4% of the total incoming passengers), and you have a potential outbreak.
If the whole world meticulously isolated even for just two continuous weeks, we wouldn’t have this pandemic now. But then, we cannot afford the whole world to stop even for a day...
Unfortunately you may be responsible but many students haven't followed the quarantine rules to save money, have gathered with friends, lived in crowded settings, etc. Other visitors and Canadians have also not followed the rules. There are many students arriving because they want to work only to discover many of the typical job opportunities for students are currently not available. Canada has been very liberal when it comes to it's definition "essential" travel until we have a quarantine system that is actually effective. I haven't seen my parents for around 2 years and they live in the same province but they could fly in from another country.
You can't just take a flight that isn't direct. At least Canada learned from the UK ban when people just travelled through other countries. You need to get another PCR test in every transit country and you have to follow the quarantine guidelines in that country as well. That could be another 10-14 days of quarantine often at your expense. Many of the transit countries like Qatar, the UK, etc. aren't admitting Indians visitors. Assume more countries will also add a travel ban. Most will not travel because it will become very time consuming and expensive and you can get stuck in a 3rd country if you do test positive for covid.
Unless the 14 day quarantine rule is enforced everywhere, the risk of outbreak remains. As what the MIT Medical article states:
“A study that examined false-negative rates post-exposure, found that during the four days of infection prior to symptom onset, the probability of a false negative on the PCR test went from 100 percent on Day 1 to 67 percent on Day 4. And even on the day individuals began showing symptoms, the false negative rate was still 38 percent, dropping to 20 percent three days after symptom onset.”
So, even with a negative result, the 14 day quarantine should still be enforced. Now try to imagine person A with a false negative sharing quarantine with person B who is really negative...
Don't disagree. I have been complaining to my MP about the fact that quarantine plans are not assessed at the airport so people are quarantining with their extended families and not isolating. This has lead to some community outbreaks including killing many people in a nursing home.
Your statement that people can easily take a flight that is not direct is what is incorrect
Sorry, I didn’t say that people can easily take an indirect flight. What I was saying is that with the ban on direct flight, people will take a transit flight.
But I agree with you that quarantine plans are not assessed at the airport.
the simple fact is that some people are stupid, they don't wear masks, they don't follow social distancing, they don't isolate themselves, and because of some idiots, everyone suffers. Asking someone to defer their studies is very easy when it is not you who is making that decision, everyone has their issues, kindly don't say it lightly. And I totally understand the flight ban, just that you still can keep the system running by taking better steps than just temporarily halting flights. And it has been more than 1 year now, everyone is frustrated.
Don't think most will take a flight that involves transiting. Lots of countries won't allow it, it will be very expensive and many will get stuck in a foreign country with covid and also may end up with a very expensive hospital bill and could even die.
But they will need to produce proof of PCR to third transiting country. And the damage this pandemic has caused to Economy, countries with busy transit hub place place ban on direct flight from countries with highly new variant cases.
Many Canadian students have also deferred their studies. In the grand scheme of your life delaying school for a year is really not a big deal. It may feel like that in the moment but in reality it isn't. Canada isn't the first country to put in a travel ban. Canada's health system is in no way close to struggling as much as the Indian health system but at the levels we are at people will not receive the care they would normally get. Many other patients have had their treatments delayed for months to a year and Canada needs to try to get their covid situation under control before even letting people do a strict 14 day quarantine. People arriving in Canada and testing positive for covid will also end up in hospitals so coming to Canada, even if you do a strict 14 day quarantine, still impacts the healthcare system.
Are there any chances of travel ban getting lifted be lifted by August/September?
Hope they lift it soon, already deferred my master's plans from Fall 2020 to Fall 2021 once,don't wanna do it again!