A new report by the auditor general found that the Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC) failed to keep track of a vast amount of data surrounding quarantine hotels.
The findings were released alongside a spate of other documents detailing the Liberal government’s handling of the COVID-19 pandemic.
According to Auditor General Karen Hogan, between July 1, 2020 to June 30, 2021, PHAC was only able to verify a quarter of the quarantine hotel stays that actually took place.
“Because the agency did not have records of stay for 75% of travellers who flew into Canada, it did not know whether those who were required to quarantine at government authorized hotels had complied,” said Hogan.
“In addition, the agency did not reliably track whether air travellers who had been notified of positive COVID-19 tests had stayed at a government-authorized hotel as required.”
Early in the pandemic, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced that Canadians hoping to travel would be forced to stay in government-approved quarantine hotels for a period of 14-days.
The program soon came under scrutiny after it was revealed that a number of women at the quarantine hotels had been sexually assaulted.
On June 21, 2021 the federal government scrapped the quarantine hotel requirement for fully vaccinated Canadian residents.
Hogan found that 326 people had not actually checked into the rooms of the hotels assigned to them. The report also revealed that nearly 30% of all COVID-19 test results were missing or could not be matched to the persons who received them.
“We also found that, although the Public Health Agency of Canada successfully contacted most travellers with positive COVID-19 tests, it had not contacted 14% of the travellers who tested positive for COVID-19 to assess their isolation plans,” says the audit.
In a scathing conclusion, Hogan called PHAC’s handling of the matter “not a success story.”
“The agency’s inability to confirm whether more than a third of travellers complied with quarantine orders remains a significant problem.”
This is not the first time that PHAC has been chastised for mishandling the COVID-19 pandemic. Early in 2020 it was revealed that the agency had severely undersupplied the National Emergency Strategic Stockpile.
