US adds Canada to highest travel risk

The Quarantine Zone
1

US adds Canada to “highest risk travel”

Given that as of today, January 10, Nine out of Thirteen provinces and territories in Canada have LOWER CASE COUNTS than 43 of the states, perhaps this risk level should be compared to the risk in various states…

As of Jan 9,
The HIGHEST province/territory, Northwest Territories is #8 on the list. Perhaps the CDC should be issuing travel warnings for those states that are higher than this; Rhode Island, New York, New Jersey, DC, Massachusetts, Florida and Vermont. And perhaps add the states to the "High Risk category that have higher case counts than the 2nd highest Canadian province. These would be Delaware, Hawaii, Connecticut, Illinois, Louisiana, West Virginia, Texas, Maryland, Kansas, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Mississipi, Missouri, South Carolina, Alabama, Utah, Kentucky, California, Arkansas, North Carolina, Indiana, Virginia. ALL of these have higher case counts than Ontario, Quebec, BC, Alberta, Saskatchewan, New Brunswick, Yukon, Nova Scotia, PEI and Newfoundland.

Comparison numbers here

Thanks in advance, CDC.

2

I’m sure that the timing of this announcement, following so closely on this story linked below about truckers, is a complete coincidence; the CDC would never stoop to letting politics influence policy.

3

It’s a guideline. Sounds drastic. Means very little.

4

It could be a guideline that meant something.

It’s very frustrating that the CDC continues to be so bad at communicating risk to people.

5

A guideline or simply a gratuitous insult?

I am taking it the same way I would if a guy in filthy clothes yelled at me that my shoes were scuffed.

6

Well, maybe. Ontario was totally unprepared for this and is short of testing capacity, and is doing so few even it admits the official case counts are wholly nonsense.

7

BC has also overwhelmed testing capacity; but I don’t have much confidence that the situation is much better in our neighbour to the south.

Bottom line is; Pot is calling the kettle black.

8

I was listening to an American podcast yesterday, and they were saying that almost everyone they know has or had Covid. And three of the four hosts have had it.

I don’t actually personally know anyone in Alberta who has had Covid. None of my wife’s co-workers have had it. None of our extended family members have had it. None of the people on my facebook friend’s list have had it. I suppose we might be outliers, but Alberta has had 434k cases in total, out of a population of 4.37 million, so about 10% of the population has had covid sometime during the pandemic.

9

I’m in much the same boat… I know some “friends of friends” who have gotten covid… But nobody in my circle of family or friends, in person or online.

289K cases in BC - about 5.7% of the population (but likely higher, as testing was overwhelmed weeks ago, and the advice is if you think you have covid or a home rapid test is positive to stay isolated and don’t bother getting PCR tested unless you are very sick.

I do know a few people who have gone in for testing, but they’ve all come back negative.

It’s possible that I (and you) are in a social bubble, where most of our friends/family are folks who are being careful, masking and vaccinating. There may be another social group where quite a few folks are testing positive…

10

Well, most of my friends are in that group, but my family members aren’t. I worry about some who are in very poor health but absolutely refuse to be vaccinated.

I’m guessing maybe ten people in my larger social circle are unvaxxed. Luckily, none have had covid. One gets dialysis at a hospital three times a week, and still has somehow managed to avoid getting infected. I worry a lot about him, as getting covid in his condition and unvaxxed probably carries a high risk of death.

11

Can’t remember if this has been posted before. CTV has been running a handy comparator chart for Covid rates by population in US states and Canadian provinces. NWT is currently in the top ten. Next highest in Canada is Yukon, coming in after the 40th US state, Mississippi.

All of the provinces and Nunavut come in after the 45th US state, Nevada.

12

If you plan to travel, though, and buy travel insurance, you need to be sure the policy isn’t invalidated by booking or going to a level 4 country. We ran into this while planning (we hope) future travel.

13

Posted this in the “Comfort Level” thread since I’m driving from MT to AB, then BC tomorrow:

“Got my travel test (negative), picked up some rapid tests at WalMart at 7 am this morning, got the ArriveCAN app all filled out, got all my paperwork. I’m going! Only a 14 hour drive… The US has put out a level 4 “Do not travel” for Canada. Montana has 103 cases/100k, Gallatin county has 293 , BC has… 56.”

14

This is a good site. CTV also has a site for just Canada and I noticed today that they are now tracking hospitalizations and ICU admissions for Covid for each province and territory. This is a good idea I think. How many people in Canada have died from COVID? | CTV News