I read in the Canadian news about people entering Canada sometime ago that did not have adequate quarantine plan and were sent to government facilities. Nice hotels with 3 meals a day and weekly cleaning all with no charge to them. Of Course government did not publicize this but it is now know the Fed's spend 37 millions. You can google this about covid expenses in Canada.
I also know snowbirds coming here that are desperate leaving Canada for the winter. They even paid extra for covid travel health insurance. It's not that much more.... and a real money grab for insurance companies. How many will get sick and need expense treatment and the airlines will change your travel plans free.... Wake up Canada these are not the people that will spread the disease or tax the healthcare system in the next few month.
The provinces should stop there bickering with the federal government and help/encourage the snowbirds to leave for the winter.
Wake up Canada and the provinces snowbirds= most over 65 years old, not overloading hospital.
To keep this DR related we all know the DR wants these snowbird.OK not as much as AI tourist and if they get sick here with international travel insurance they will have top notch's treatment.
During the repatriation flight phase of the pandemic last April, returning infected Canadians were place in a variety of isolation facilities. Some were commercial hotels, others were government owned such as the Nav Canada residences in Cornwall, Ontario or military quarters on bases. They ranged from very comfortable to very basic.
With the new Covid testing requirement in place, the potential for larger numbers of infected or untested returning Canadians is greater and it will fill all facilities quickly. Logistical failure is almost certain.
The original requirement of entering and proving you had a viable isolation plan in place at your final arrival point was a sensible one. The new requirement for mandatory isolation in a government run facility if you aren’t tested is too draconian. The option to isolate at home has to be reinstated. It’s just common sense. The provinces are much stricter now tracking and monitoring people in isolation. The federal Covid exposure tracking app has been debugged and is now working in new and older cell phones in all provinces.
Covid medical insurance offered by the DR government and the airlines is not necessarily a good thing. Public DR hospitals have limited ICU facilities and ventilators. Not that long ago they were turning sick people away. One major hospital in Santo Domingo was on the verge of collapse. Has this changed? Private medical facilities may be better equipped but they are also limited in number. Medivac may be the only viable way to get proper medical treatment if you get infected with Covid while vacationing in the DR. The previous government never gave a true account of the number of Covid infections and deaths in the DR and there are questions about the veracity of the information the new government is providing. I think Covid medical insurance creates a false sense of security. I certainly wouldn’t be depending on it had I chosen to return to the DR last April.
Travelling to any foreign country and trying to return to Canada is a crap shoot right now. If you can afford it and have the time (snowbirds) can hedge their bets, stay hunkered down in the DR, and hope things will get better by May. The average AI tourist can’t do that. The majority of them have jobs to go home to and can’t afford to take extra time off to isolate.
The new Canadian re-entry requirements will have a greater impact on Canada-DR tourism that a supposed two week DR airport closure. Some Canadian tourists will ignore the new requirements but a lot won’t.
