Chaos at Canada’s COVID-19 quarantine hotels

Global News shows that there are growing reports of chaos and confusion at designated hotels where travellers arriving in Canada are required to quarantine. It seems that there are long line-ups, expensive bills and guests leaving their hotel rooms. Food could be being delivered too late.

A quarantine is the restriction on the movement of people, which is intended to prevent the spread of disease. It is often used in connection to disease and illness, preventing the movement of those who may have been exposed to a communicable disease, but do not have a confirmed medical diagnosis. It is distinct from medical isolation, in which those confirmed to be infected with a communicable disease are isolated from the healthy population. Quarantine considerations are often an important aspect of country border control.

It seems that the so-called practice of quarantine, as we know it, began during the 14th century in an effort to protect coastal cities from plague epidemics. Ships arriving in Venice from infected ports were required to certainly sit at anchor for 40 days before landing.

The concept of quarantine has been known for a long time. It has been done in various places. Notable quarantines in modern history include that of the village of Eyam in 1665 during the bubonic plague outbreak in England; East Samoa during the 1918 flu pandemic; the Diphtheria outbreak during the 1925 serum run to Nome, the 1972 Yugoslav smallpox outbreak, and the quarantines for the COVID-19 pandemic (these days). Ethical and practical considerations are considered when applying quarantine to people.

The Worldwide Global Coronavirus COVID-19 pandemic is also known as the coronavirus pandemic. This is an ongoing pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). It was first identified in December 2019 in Wuhan, China. The World Health Organization declared the outbreak a Public Health Emergency of International Concern in January 2020 and a pandemic in March 2020. As of 28 February 2021, more than 113 million cases have been confirmed, with more than 2.52 million deaths attributed to COVID-19, making it one of the most dangerous deadliest pandemics in history.

Symptoms of COVID-19 range from none to life-threatening illness. The dangerous virus spreads mainly through the air when people are near each other. It leaves an infected person as they breathe, cough, sneeze, or speak and enters another person via their mouth, nose, or eyes. It may also spread via contaminated surfaces. People remain infectious for up to 2 weeks, and can spread the virus even if they do not show symptoms. 

You might have thought about the difference between people who have asymptomatic or pre-symptomatic COVID-19. Both terms refer to people who do not have symptoms. The difference is that ‘asymptomatic’ refers to people who are infected but never develop any symptoms, while ‘pre-symptomatic’ refers to infected people who have not yet developed symptoms but go on to develop symptoms later.

Important recommended preventive measures include social distancing, wearing face masks in public, ventilation and air-filtering, hand washing, covering one's mouth when sneezing or coughing, disinfecting surfaces, and monitoring and self-isolation for people exposed or symptomatic. Several vaccines are being developed and distributed.

The pandemic has created the largest global recession since the Great Depression. It has led to the postponement or cancellation of events, widespread supply shortages exacerbated by panic buying and agricultural disruption and food shortages.

However, lockdowns are clearing the air to create less pollution. This decreases emissions of pollutants. Many educational institutions and public areas have been partially or fully closed.