Seite - 401 - in VULNERABLE - The Law, Policy and Ethics of COVID-19

401Spread of Anti-Asian Racism: Prevention and Critical Race Analysis in Pandemic Planning Keeping out the Yellow Peril As Canada’s Chief Public Health Officer, Dr. Tam, has explained, shutting the border to persons coming from China may not have solved the problem because the virus, “had already travelled some- where else” by the time cases manifested in Canada, and those cases were linked to countries that were not reporting significant numbers of COVID-19 cases, such as Iran and some European countries.36 It is early days and statistics provided by the Canadian govern- ment may not have been collected in an optimal manner, but data disclosed thus far reveal interesting trends. As of April 7, 2020, 26% of COVID-19 cases have been related to travel exposure.37 In March 2020, 42% of all non-resident travellers who had COVID-19 were from Europe, 35% were from Asia, and 10% were from North America, Central America, and the Caribbean.38 By early March, only 10 cases in Canada could be traced back to travel from China.39 In another set of government data, as of April 27, 2020, 20% of persons with COVID-19 in Canada were exposed while travelling or exposed to a traveller coming to Canada, while 80% had no known contact with a travel-related case and had not travelled outside of Canada in the 14 days prior to illness onset.40 It is difficult to assess whether the partial border closure is effective, given that some restric- tions were placed starting March 18, 2020, and considering that people continue to cross our borders. It is unclear whether the rate of testing may have changed this data and to what extent non-Asian permanent residents or citizens were travelling from Asia. Dr. Tam admitted, “The idea of shutting Canada’s borders to international travel wasn’t in the playbook of most health experts.”41 Despite this, Canada initially moved to close the border to everyone 36. Peter Zimonjic, Rosemary Barton & Philip Ling, “‘Was It Perfect? No’: Theresa Tam Discusses Canada’s Early Pandemic Response”, CBC News (27 April 2020), online: <www.cbc.ca/news/politics/theresa-tam-could-have-acted-sooner-1. 5546819>. 37. Statistics Canada, Travel-Related  Exposure  to  COVID-19  (Ottawa: Statistics Canada, 8 April 2020), online: Statistics Canada <www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/pub/89-28-0001/ 2018001/article/00018-eng.htm>. 38. Ibid. 39. Zimonjic et al, supra note 36. 40. Government of Canada, Epidemiological  Summary  of  COVID-19  Cases  in  Canada  (Ottawa: Government of Canada, last updated 27 April 2020), online: Government  of Canada <health-infobase.canada.ca/covid-19/epidemiological-summary-covid- 19-cases.html>. 41. Zimonjic et al, supra note 36.