Sir, – The Canadian province of Nova Scotia (population just under a million) has to date had a total of 1,576 cases of Covid-19 and 65 deaths, with no deaths since July. In the past 14 days they have had a total of 29 cases. The neighbouring province of New Brunswick, with a slightly smaller population and a long land border with the US and Quebec, has fared worse recently, with a current 14-day incidence of 44 per 100,000, its highest so far in the pandemic, although it appears to have peaked.
The provinces on Canada’s eastern seaboard have in effect, and largely successfully, pursued a zero or near-zero Covid strategy involving closing their borders to the rest of Canada combined with aggressive contact tracing of cases that do occur, including public announcements of locations visited by potentially infectious cases. All this while remaining part of a larger, open economy.
Are there lessons that Ireland and Europe can learn from this? – Yours, etc,
JONIVAR
SKULLERUD,
Sandymount,
Dublin 4.