“Nine months after the start of this crisis, this is still not in place in most of the country. The disparate approach to testing and tracing has been inefficient and very costly from a health and economic standpoint, ”added Mr. Asselin.
A ray of hope for 2021
By the end of the year, Canada had recovered just over four-fifths of the three million jobs lost in the spring, and real gross domestic product was about 4% below pre-pandemic levels, after have recorded a historic decline in the second quarter.
Low levels of COVID-19 transmission contributed to this rebound, suggesting that “Canada has managed to balance the health and economic risks associated with the pandemic relatively well,” the briefing said.
“Nonetheless, the experience of other countries that have witnessed a resurgence or a second wave of infections suggests that health risks will remain a threat as we move into the fall and beyond. the road to economic recovery, ”reads the document prepared in September.
The Canadian economy has grown even as the number of cases has increased, presenting what experts see as a beacon of hope for 2021 despite the imposition of new restrictions in parts of the country.
The restrictions have hit some sectors harder than others. The briefing note foreshadowed how provinces and municipalities might have to close or limit the hours of operation of certain businesses, such as restaurants and bars, “and should be equipped to quickly identify and trace outbreaks.”
The briefing note also states that effective contact tracing “goes hand in hand” with testing to reduce transmission. By the time the memo was written, the number of tests had reached about 48,000 per day in Canada, or the equivalent of about 0.13% of the population, by the end of August.
“Evidence varies on the appropriate level of testing, but increased capacity and more quickly available testing would be a big boost to economic recovery in the fall,” officials wrote.
Trevin Stratton, chief economist at the Canadian Chamber of Commerce, said the country must start using faster tests to gain control over COVID-19 as authorities scramble to administer vaccines.
“By knowing who has been recently exposed to the virus, in many cases even when people are infected, but asymptomatic, we can contain its spread through targeted responses,” he said. “This approach will limit the need for comprehensive measures like containments, which cause serious collateral damage.”
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