Revised Quarantine Act has serious limitations

摘要

The federal government has taken a tentative step toward bolstering national capacity to handle global health threats by enhancing its authority to deal with suspected cases of communicable diseases at international entry points like airports. But the revamped Quarantine Act neither applies to domestic travel nor compels provinces to share information about disease outbreaks within their borders. Nor does it give Ottawa the authority to declare or manage a public health emergency within a province. Given these limitations, critics fear the Act falls well short of oversight measures recommended in the aftermath of the SARS outbreak.