Canada’s multi-jurisdictional COVID-19 Public Health response – January to May 2020
Open accessAbstract
In late January 2020, the first COVID-19 case was reported in Canada. By March 5, 2020, community spread of the virus was identified and by May 26, 2020, close to 86,000 patients had COVID-19 and 6,566 had died. As COVID-19 cases increased, provincial and territorial governments announced states of public health emergency between March 13 and 20, 2020. This paper examines Canada’s public health response to the COVID-19 pandemic during the first four months (January to May 2020) by overviewing the actions undertaken by the federal (national) and regional (provincial/territorial) governments. Canada’s jurisdictional public health structures, public health responses, technological and research endeavours, and public opinion on the pandemic measures are described. As the pandemic unravelled, the federal and provincial/territorial governments unrolled a series of stringent public health interventions and restrictions, including physical distancing and gathering size restrictions; closures of borders, schools, and non-essential businesses and services; cancellations of non-essential medical services; and limitations on visitors in hospital and long-term care facilities. In late May 2020, there was a gradual decrease in the daily numbers of new COVID-19 cases seen across most jurisdictions, which has led the provinces and territories to prepare phased re-opening. Overall, the COVID-19 pandemic in Canada and the substantial amount of formative health and policy-related data being created provide an insight on how to improve responses and better prepare for future health emergencies.
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- Authors
- Bielska, I. A., Jewett, L., Embrett, M., Buote, R., Manis, D. R., Parikh, M., Speicher, D. J., Agarwal, G., Nartowski, R. O., Finnegan, H., Bandara, T., Hamilton, C. B., Moore, E., Liu, R. H., Roher, S. I. G., Lopatina, E., Nguyen, D. T. K., Lawrence, L., & Lukewich, J.
- Affiliations
- University of Toronto (CA)
- Dalhousie University (CA)
- Memorial University of Newfoundland (CA)
- McMaster University (CA)
- Michael G. DeGroote Institute for Infectious Disease Research (CA)
- University of Aberdeen (GB)
- University of Manitoba (CA)
- University of Saskatchewan (CA)
- University of British Columbia (CA)
- McGill University (CA)
- University of Calgary (CA)
- ORCID
- Venue
- Zdrowie Publiczne i Zarządzanie
- Publisher
- "Medycyna Praktyczna" Spolka Jawna
- Published
- 2020
- Volume
- 18
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 88-105
- ISSN
- 1731-7398 (ISSN-L)
- 2084-2627
- OpenAlex
- W3080266540
- Cited by
- 2
- References
- 6
- Citations by year
- 2023: 1 · 2021: 1
- FWCI
- 0.08
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- diamond
- doi.org
- Licence
- cc-by-nc-nd
- Locations
- Zdrowie Publiczne i Zarządzanie (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
- Funders
- Fondation de la recherche en santé du Nouveau-Brunswick
- Michael Smith Health Research BC
- Canadian Institutes of Health Research
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Mathematics › Modeling and Simulation › COVID-19 epidemiological studies
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › COVID-19 Prevention and Impact
- Health Sciences › Health Professions › General Health Professions › Public Health Policies and Education
- Keywords
- COVID-19 pandemic, public health response, intergovernmental relations, federal-provincial relations, public health emergencies, social distancing, border closures, school closures, phased reopening, health emergency preparedness, Canada
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