Air China planes continue to land
The Journal de Montréal notes that Air China flights from Beijing are still landing at Trudeau although it’s down to two flights weekly from the normal five.
The U.S. has banned all flights from Europe as of Friday. Will we see a lot of folks transiting through Canadian airports on their way home to the United States? Canada was not apprised of the U.S. plan before it was announced, but it’s entirely possible nobody in the U.S. knew of Trump’s intention before he mentioned it on camera.
Every media outlet now has guidelines for self-isolation. The CBC links to Canada’s Quarantine Act.
The Gazette has Andy Riga doing a live update feed of virus news of local relevance. TVA also has an en direct page.
Kevin 10:50 on 2020-03-12 Permalink
Nobody knew what Trump was going to say because he — as usual — misread the teleprompter and had to be corrected within the hour.
walkerp 11:01 on 2020-03-12 Permalink
We have a planned trip to Lake Placid, NY for a long weekend of skiing with my sister’s family (coming up from NYC). Leaving this early evening, coming back Sunday. Wondering what the wise folks here at the MTL City Weblog think, should we cancel?
We are all healthy and not in any risk category. I am concerned more with not flattening the curve, social distancing, etc.
ant6n 11:09 on 2020-03-12 Permalink
Hows your health coverage in the US?
walkerp 11:43 on 2020-03-12 Permalink
Seems very good, from both our employers. We are lucky.
Kate 12:07 on 2020-03-12 Permalink
Do you want to risk having to go into self-quarantine after you return? Because it may be coming to that.
Em 12:09 on 2020-03-12 Permalink
@walkerp all people who travel outside the country now asked to self-isolate for 14 days.
walkerp 12:09 on 2020-03-12 Permalink
Looks like Legault just announced self-quarantine for anybody returning from a foreign country, so your warning is on point, Kate.
jeather 12:18 on 2020-03-12 Permalink
I would absolutely cancel at this point. The risk to you might be very low, but the risk to everyone else is not. And much travel insurance did not cover this, so you’d need to pay for your medical care and 2 week quarantine in the US should it turn out someone at the hotel/ski resort/restaurant/gas station/etc had the disease.
walkerp 12:24 on 2020-03-12 Permalink
Thanks everyone. The news cycle kind of decided for us, but yeah I think the correct choice is to stay at home and not be potential vectors. Now I am going to PA to battle Mile-End yupsters for toilet paper. 😉
Raymond Lutz 12:35 on 2020-03-12 Permalink
Self-isolation? Quarantine? This: “In the Singapore cluster, between 45% and 84% of infections appeared to come from people incubating the virus. In China, the figures ranged from 65% to as much as 87%. Tapiwa Ganyani, a researcher on the team, said the numbers suggest that isolating sick people would not be enough to quell the outbreak.” https://www.theguardian.com/science/2020/mar/12/coronavirus-most-infections-spread-by-people-yet-to-show-symptoms-scientists
Meezly 12:39 on 2020-03-12 Permalink
From my understanding, self-isolation at this point is preventing the spread even if you have no symptoms, but have returned from a place that might have put you at some risk.
Francesco 13:09 on 2020-03-12 Permalink
The
Virus
Is
Already
Here
jeather 13:17 on 2020-03-12 Permalink
We’re trying to slow the spread, not prevent it from arriving.
Raymond Lutz 13:19 on 2020-03-12 Permalink
@Meezly, Oui, l’isolation est pertinente (désolé si mon post suggérait le contraire). Elle est nécessaire mais pas suffisante. De plus, combien de gens peuvent cesser de travailler sans avoir de soucis d’argent? Le fédéral et le provincial devraient élaborer immédiatement une aide financière de subsistance pour ceux qui n’ont pas le privilège d’avoir des congés de maladie.
Playing my armchair specialist: we should max out our testing capacity (emulating South Korea, more then 3000 tests/day). As read here in the comments: keep your distance (2m), wash correctly you hands with soap and don’t touch your face. The HK Centre for Health Protection is a good source of practical info (bleach disinfectant recipes, how and when to wear a mask, etc..) https://www.chp.gov.hk/en/features/102742.html
Meezly 14:15 on 2020-03-12 Permalink
Um, yes, I think we all know that the virus is already here. As jeather pointed out, we’re trying to flatten the curve and avoid a huge spike from occurring.
Raymond Lutz 14:32 on 2020-03-12 Permalink
Flatten the curve so the health system doesn’t collapse (bringing up the mortality rate).
“Once there are hundreds or thousands of cases growing in the population, preventing more from coming, tracking the existing ones and isolating their contacts isn’t enough anymore. The next level is mitigation.
Mitigation requires heavy social distancing. People need to stop hanging out to drop the transmission rate (R), from the R=~2–3 that the virus follows without measures, to below 1, so that it eventually dies out.
These measures require closing companies, shops, mass transit, schools, enforcing lockdowns… The worse your situation, the worse the social distancing.” https://medium.com/@tomaspueyo/coronavirus-act-today-or-people-will-die-f4d3d9cd99ca
Meezly 15:10 on 2020-03-12 Permalink
Indeed, Raymond Lutz, indeed. Hospitals in Italy are really struggling presently, to say the least.
Clee 15:17 on 2020-03-12 Permalink
I think airplanes from China are much safer than the ones from Italy at the moment. I compared the number of new cases since Monday, China added 197 new cases while Italy added 3290. The quarantine in Wuhan seems to be working, lets hope it will help slow it down in Italy also.