Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said on the 1st that although President-elect Joseph Biden’s attitude towards the coronavirus pandemic is completely different from that of the current government, the next government may take some time to reverse the deterioration of the pandemic, so Canada will not lift the border travel ban between the two countries.
Trudeau said in an interview with the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation on the same day: “Unless the pandemic is significantly controlled around the world, we will not relax border restrictions.”
Trudeau said that even if the leadership of Washington is replaced, the pandemic in the United States will continue to spread and it will take “a while” to get better.
The United States is the country with the worst COVID-19 pandemic in the world, with more than 13.7 million confirmed cases and more than 270,000 deaths as of the 1st.
The United States is the only country that borders Canada on land. After the outbreak of the pandemic, the two countries began to ban cross-border non-essential travel in March this year, allowing only necessary people and goods to pass. This ban has been extended repeatedly. The Canadian government extended the ban again until January 21 next year on November 29.
The Associated Press reported that before the pandemic, the number of people entering and leaving the border crossings of the two countries reached 400,000 per day. Up to three-quarters of Canada’s exports are destined for the United States.
Trudeau admitted on November 24 that Canada does not have the capacity to mass-produce vaccines, and its people are expected to start vaccinated against the novel coronavirus until 2021, later than the United States, Germany and other countries with production capacity. This statement attracted criticism from the opposition party.
Trudeau said at a press conference on the 1st of this month that Canada was one of the first countries to book vaccines produced by the American biotechnology company Modena. “If the vaccine is safely approved, we promise to get the first batch of vaccines.”
Trudeau said that the coronavirus vaccine developed by Pfizer Pharmaceuticals and German biotechnology company, and the vaccine jointly developed by Oxford University and AstraZeneca Pharmaceuticals in the United Kingdom are also within the scope of approval of the Canadian Health Agency. “Just yesterday, Johnson & Johnson became the fourth candidate vaccine supplier”.
Local Canadian government officials previously said that the federal government has ordered 6 million coronavirus vaccines from Modena and Pfizer. This statement was later denied by Canadian federal government officials.
On November 27, Trudeau appointed Danny Fortin, the former Chief of Staff of the Canadian Joint Operations Command, to be responsible for the vaccine distribution program, and the specific plan is still under discussion.
As of the 1st of this month, Canada has more than 380,000 confirmed cases of the novel coronavirus and more than 12,000 deaths.
