A Minnesota couple were fined $1,000 each for violating Canada's mandatory quarantine order
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A couple from Minnesota were fined $1,000 each by Canadian authorities after they were spotted breaking the country's quarantine order.
Canada's Global News reported that David Sippel, 66, and Anne Sippel, 65, were charged with violating the Quarantine Act after they arrived in the country and did not follow police orders to go directly to their final destination.
The act was invoked in late March to mandate self-isolation for international travelers upon arrival. There has been at least one other case of fines being brought on violators.
Two Americans are facing $1,000 fines each after violating Canada's Quarantine Act upon their arrival across the border.
David Sippel, 66, and Anne Sippel, 65, of Excelsior, Minnesota, entered Canada at the Fort Frances crossing on June 24 and were instructed to self-quarantine for 14 days, Canada's Global News reported.
The Sippels were seen making stops in the town of Fort Frances, which the Ontario Provincial Police told Global News led to the charges.
The act was invoked in late March in response to the novel coronavirus pandemic. It mandates self-isolation for international travelers once they arrive in the country, barring them from public spaces like transportation. Forbes reported that the act was updated in 2005 to address the SARS epidemic by imposing legal penalties on those who break quarantine, including fines and jail time.
"As our knowledge about COVID-19 evolves, we continue to adjust our response to this epidemic," Minister of Health Patty Hajdu said in the April 14 announcement on the policy. "These changes will make it clearer to asymptomatic travelers arriving in Canada that they need to have an appropriate place to self-isolate, where they will not put any vulnerable people such as adults aged 65 years or over and people with pre-existing medical conditions at risk."
The couple's violation charge came around two weeks after two men, Ernest Calvert, 62, and Hunter Calvert, 19, were spotted breaking quarantine near their Fort Frances home. The Calverts faced a similar fine of $1,000 each plus a $135 victim surcharge, the Duluth News Tribune reported.
Business Insider previously reported that individuals like truck drivers, whose work required them to cross the border, were exempt from the order, but are still required to wear a mask while in the country. The order said violators could face "a fine of up to $750,000 or imprisonment for six months, or both."
The order was later extended until August 31, as cases surged just south of the border in the US.
Restrictions barring all non-essential travel, including tourism and recreation, across the Canada-US border remain in effect until July 21, 2020, the country's Public Health Agency announced on June 30.
As of July 5, the US has more than 2.8 million confirmed cases over 129,000 deaths, per Johns Hopkins University data. Canada has reported 107,329 cases and 8,739 deaths.
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