An audit of Canada’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic has found that the federal government did not know whether two-thirds of travellers had followed a mandatory 14-day quarantine order after entering the country during the first wave of COVID-19 cases.
The finding was revealed in a report from the Auditor General of Canada.
The mandatory quarantine was implemented on March 25, 2020, to help prevent the spread of COVID-19 from travellers.
However, between May 5 and June 30, the Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC) was “unaware whether … 66 per cent of incoming travellers who were required to quarantine were in fact doing so” — or 108,800 travellers out of 165,400.
As well, less than half of travellers suspected of not quarantining were followed up with by law enforcement.
“As a result, the agency missed an opportunity to assess the effectiveness of quarantine measures in limiting the spread of the virus that causes COVID‑19,” the report states.
Of the travellers suspected of non-compliance, only 40 per cent were referred to law enforcement by PHAC, according to the report, and the agency did not know whether law enforcement actually contacted the potential rule-breakers.
The agency also could not track new cases of COVID-19 to see if they were connected to travellers not quarantining because of “limitations of public health information,” the report states.
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“The agency had not contemplated or planned for mandatory quarantine on a nationwide scale and, as a result, had to increase capacity to verify compliance,” the report reads.
The audit found that between May 5 and June 30, 2020, 60 per cent of all incoming travellers received at least one phone call to check if they were quarantined, and out of those travellers, 54 per cent were verified to be quarantining while one per cent were non-compliant and 45 per cent were not reached by Health Canada.
Out of the 46,500 not confirmed to be compliant, 40 per cent, or 18,400, were referred to law enforcement for follow up.
However, the agency was unaware if follow up actually occurred for 83 per cent of those not quarantining, or 15,300.
PHAC also had missing or incomplete contact information for about one in five incoming travellers, the report found.
The report ultimately recommends that PHAC should “improves its systems and processes for administering the nationwide mandatory quarantine during the COVID‑19 pandemic, including the collection of contact information and follow-up to verify compliance.”
PHAC, in response, agreed with the audit’s findings and said in the final report that the agency has already improved its quarantine system since its early phase, such as by requiring travellers to enter their contact information in the ArriveCAN app.
Canada changed its mandatory quarantine policy from taking place at one’s personal home to government-mandated hotels in February 2021. The policy has since been lifted for those who are fully vaccinated.
The audit of Canada’s response to the pandemic was done to see how prepared PHAC was and whether border and quarantine implementations were done successfully.