Covid Restrictions Enforcement Fiasco

[MikePal]

Make all the rules you want..but when you can't enforce them they become a joke....

Earlier in the pandemic, the Public Health Agency of Canada had no idea whether 66 per cent of incoming travellers followed quarantine orders. This latest audit revealed the government still could not verify whether 37 per cent of travellers obeyed the rules.


“The agency’s inability to confirm whether more than one third of travellers complied with quarantine orders remains a significant problem,” the auditor general said.

The agency struggled to keep track of people who were supposed to wait for test results in so called “quarantine hotels.”

While agents would check that travellers had made reservations at a hotel, the Public Health Agency of Canada only had records to verify 25 per cent of those people actually checked in.

“If they’re going to put in a requirement, they really do need to have worked through how to monitor and enforce that requirement,” Hogan said.

Public health officials were also supposed to get in touch with travellers who tested positive for COVID-19 to confirm they got their test results and self-isolated, but the auditor found of the 8,071 who tested positive, 11 per cent, or about 1,156 of them were never contacted.

As well, PHAC was missing or unable to match 30 per cent of COVID-19 test results to incoming travellers during the audit period.

Take travellers ordered to report to designated quarantine facilities, for example. Of the 71 who refused to go and 45 that left without permission, only 13 received tickets.

In general, the government has no idea what became of 59 per cent of travellers suspected of flouting quarantine orders, after the agency referred their suspicions to law enforcement.