Some New Brunswickers are still travelling for leisure — and bringing home COVID-19

For nearly a year, public health officials across the country have been encouraging people to stay home. 

Former Nova Scotia premier Stephen McNeil's warning to "stay the blazes home" has even taken on a life of its own. 

Yet, some New Brunswickers are still travelling outside the province for "leisure" purposes. In fact, these travellers are responsible for the highest number of positive COVID-19 cases of any category of travellers returning to the province. 

At a news briefing last week, the province's chief medical officer of health gave the first indication of how much COVID-19 these leisure travellers are bringing back with them. 

In the last 3½ months, Dr. Jennifer Russell said, a total of 111 individuals tested positive after returning from outside the province. Of those: 

• 37 travelled for leisure
• 22 were international students or temporary foreign workers
• 16 were truck drivers
• 15 were rotational workers
• 7 were daily commuters across the border
• 13 were for other reasons. 

Russell said the "other reasons" category includes caring for a family member, attending a funeral, moving to New Brunswick, and non-essential travel for work.

Those 111 cases were, in turn, linked to at least 58 other positive cases, said Russell.   

The province was asked on Tuesday morning about how many of those 58 cases could be attributed to leisure travellers, but an answer was not provided by publication time. Nor did they respond to a question about where New Brunswickers have been travelling for leisure. 

Andy McCann believes he may have been categorized as a "leisure" traveller since he doesn't fit into any of the other categories. 

McCann is a member of the men's curling team that represented New Brunswick at the Brier in Calgary earlier this month. In fact, until Friday, he's still in self-isolation from that trip. 

He's not pleased at having to follow the exact same rules as someone who decided that a week at a southern destination was "essential" travel. 

Under the Brier's operational plan, McCann said, it was virtually impossible to pick up COVID-19 while he was outside the province.

"The last thing we want to do is bring it home, but the more that we actually talked to Curling Canada and they explained all the measures … I had a better chance of catching COVID going to grocery shop in Fredericton than I did out there, for sure." 

Yet, here he is with a negative COVID test result from last Saturday and still having to self-isolate. 

McCann said he knew the risks and the requirements when he decided last fall to attend the Brier. But when he read the event's strict operational plan, he was hoping the New Brunswick government would amend its quarantine requirements  — to something more akin to the requirements that had been in place for rotational workers prior to Jan. 30. 

The current rules require them to self-isolate for a full 14 days away from others. Before the change, however, they could leave isolation early following a negative test, and stay at home with family.

• Rotational workers say new isolation rules leave them separated from family

That would have meant that McCann would have been able to see his three children — ages 14, 10 and 6 — a lot sooner. He said it's especially difficult since he had been away for 10 days, competing for the chance to represent Canada at the world men's curling championship. 

"We were pretty disappointed for the government to not even acknowledge our requests for shortened isolation times, because at the end of the day, we were going to have four tests within a 10-day period."

Add another test after they arrived home, and McCann believes he should have been able to shorten the quarantine period. 

If you must travel...

According to the provincial government, New Brunswickers are supposed to "avoid all unnecessary travel" outside the  province. That's the second-highest alert level available. Above that is "avoid all travel." 

Its website states, "If you must travel, please visit the Government of Canada's travel advice and advisories page for your destination(s) regularly to verify travel health recommendations and safety and security information."

That page states that in order to board a flight to Canada, all air passengers five years of age or older, including Canadians returning home, are required to show a negative COVID-19 test result taken within 72 hours of their scheduled time of departure to Canada.

"It's important to remember that if you leave the province," states the New Brunswick government information on travel, "not only are you subject to rules in place at your destination(s), but the rules in New Brunswick upon your return as well." 

And that includes isolating for 14 days after you get back to the province.

Canadians still travelling

The president of the Association of Canadian Travel Agencies said overall travel is down by 90 per cent. 

Wendy Paradis said the pandemic has had a "catastrophic" effect on her members. 

She suspects the majority of those still travelling are doing so for work, but she said people are still travelling for fun. 

In most cases, she said there's nothing to stop them from doing so. While travel agents will explain all of the rules and risks, the final decision is with the traveller. 

"We would not say do not book," said Paradis. 

In January, Air Canada, WestJet, Sunwing and Air Transat agreed to suspend service to some sun destinations until April 30. 

The announcement was accompanied by a message from Prime Minister Justin Trudeau that "it's not the time to travel." 

"Yes, it is extremely low, the percentage of cases that are traced back to international travel, but it's not zero," he said. 

Paradis said some determined Canadians have travelled to the United States in order to catch flights to vacation destinations. 

But the amount of business hasn't been enough to keep the industry afloat.

She said government aid programs have helped, and businesses are holding on as long as they can — in some cases, putting off renewing leases, or making other decisions to help reduce costs. 

So far, she said, about 10 per cent of travel agencies have closed. 

"It's now been a year where we have had close to zero revenue, zero travel transactions," said Paradis.

But she knows that Canadians are getting the travel bug. 

"So even though the situation is very dire, we are hopeful and confident in the future." 

And while many are dreaming of exotic destinations, she believes the first trip for most will be to visit friends and family. 

"I know a number of grandparents who've never laid eyes on their brand-new grandchildren," said Paradis.

"The top priority is for people to spend time with their loved ones that live in different parts of Canada, or different parts of the world."

And then they'll start thinking about those "bucket list" trips, she said.