Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau while defending his government’s budget deficit told reporters in Ottawa that the country has fared far better than US in controlling the coronavirus pandemic. From shutting down parts of the economy and ramping up spending on emergency relief programs, Canada is worth the praise.
“We were able to control the virus better than many of our allies,” he told reporters earlier this month “Including, particularly, our neighbour.”
The two countries share similar connections to initial hot spots in China and Europe and confirmed their first cases within a week of each other in January. But the US since then has tested more people per capita and reported nearly twice as many deaths.
Analysts pointed out several reasons for the different outcomes. According to them, Canada has the natural advantage of geography with less than one-ninth the US population. Canadians aren’t evenly distributed — two-thirds of them live within 62 miles of the US border — but no city here is as densely populated as, say, New York City.
Besides, the country has also performed better during critical moments. Canada was able to ramp up testing more quickly than US in the early stages of the pandemic.
Canada was more disciplined in combating COVID-19. Once the government announced its measures, they were strict, broadly uniform and all the citizens widely followed every rules.
Though Canada’s COVID-19 response is not that perfect but still they were more better in comparison to their neighbor. And all credit must go to their political leadership for this stupendous result.
In contrast, US President Donald Trump has at times seemed to condition federal aid on support for him, and governors have fought with each other and the federal government over critical supplies.
According to the latest report, the number of coronavirus cases in the US has risen to 3,495,536 while the death toll has risen to 137,358 deaths.
In Canada, 110,693 COVID-19 cases have been reported with 8,857 deaths.
