01-31-2021, 08:34 PM
(01-31-2021, 08:22 PM)tomh009 Wrote:(01-31-2021, 04:51 PM)danbrotherston Wrote: "limit"...how about eliminate.
Yes, I'm not suggesting that we could have prevented it from coming here ever, but we could have pursued an extinction policy, we did not. That was a choice.
It was a choice, yes. Travel would have needed to be eliminated (federal government). All returning Canadians would have needed to be in enforced quarantine (federal). COVID tests also for any truck drivers or air crews entering Canada (federal). Hard lockdown in each province (provincial governments). Not sure that we could have realistically implemented this though -- at least implemented successfully.
It worked in NZ and (for the most part) in Australia. But other countries (in Europe) did hard lockdowns and were not able to eliminate the virus. Living on an island does make it easier.
Travel is not banned in NZ but there is a 14 day quarantine strictly enforced.
Being an island doesn't really mean anything. We have significant travel, we just need to set the same restrictions for border crossing.
As for elimination it also has to do with keeping lockdowns long enough. Like others, we will no doubt be lifting ours too soon again.