Uptick in U.S. COVID-19 cases means border should stay closed: health minister
Posted June 8, 2020 6:50 pm.
VANCOUVER (NEWS 1130) — Opening up the Canada-U.S. border at the end of the month isn’t sitting well with provincial health officials.
Health Minister Adrian Dix remains dead set against the border possibly opening up because several states close to B.C. and along the West Coast have seen case counts spike.
“In Washington, in Oregon, in California, in Arizona, in Nevada –states where there are many reciprocal relationships, or where people from B.C. go frequently— there are significant upticks, actual upticks in the month of June,” he says.
Earlier Monday, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced a ban on non-essential crossings is being eased so some families can reunite, but anyone who does that must still self-quarantine for two weeks.
Dix argues the jump in cases means the border to the U.S. should stay closed beyond its current expiry date of June 21.
“This is not something that we see as desirable, but it is something that I see as necessary. We have made, and the federal government has made, provisions for people whose families have been separated. Even there, the rules have to apply,” he says.
“We, in the province, are spending enormous effort and resources. Every single person watching this can talk about the efforts they’ve made over the last number of months to reduce the transmission of COVID-19 and we have to, for those reasons, be significantly, especially vigilant.”
The border has been closed to all non-essential travel since March.
