Canada could be last country to cling to two-metre physical distancing rule

“Even in the absence of threat,” philosopher Ophelia Deroy and colleagues wrote at the very start of the COVID-19 calamity, “spatial distancing is unnatural.” Like other primates, humans crave contact. Faced with danger, we instinctively want to huddle even closer.

Which may help explain why, as Prime Minister Boris Johnson mulls the idea of reducing the U.K.’s physical distancing rule from two metres to one and Quebec reduces it in some circumstances, new polling shows Canadians are having a harder time staying apart.

Overall, of 1,510 Canadian adults randomly recruited from a web panel who were surveyed June 5 to 7, 63 per cent said that, despite making “considerable efforts” to socially distance, people outside their families had come within two metres of them over the past week, up from 57 per cent the previous week.

Social distancing “enjoys the least success” among 18 to 24 year olds, the poll found, while Ontario saw the biggest week-to-week “erosion” in social distancing, along with Quebec and Alberta, according to the Association for Canadian Studies – Leger poll, which raises the question, will Canada be the last country to cling to the two-metre edict?

As the provinces move closer to semi-normal, as the “de-confinement” measures began, “we saw a change in the perception people had about whether others are getting in their space,” said Jack Jedwab, president of the Association for Canadian Studies and chair of the COVID-19 Social Impacts Network.

Outside B.C, where the inverse was true, “the idea of social distancing in large dense areas is increasingly challenging for people,” Jedwab said. “And there’s a psychological impact of de-confinement. People are a little more relaxed about social distancing.”

When asked where social distancing can be a challenge, 75 per cent said while grocery shopping, 20 per cent said in pharmacies, 24 per cent said in work spaces, 14 per cent said taking public transit and 22 per cent said going for a walk in the neighbourhood.

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While the official federal advice in Canada is to keep no less than two metres distance from others outside the home as much as possible, Quebec announced Monday that, starting June 22, the province is reducing to one metre its physical distancing rule for children 16 and younger. In movie theatres and other places where people don’t frequently circulate or speak, distancing will be reduced to 1.5 metres, Quebec officials said.

The World Health Organization recommends a distance of at least one metre. Canada, the U.K, and Spain are all at two metres, the U.S., 1.8 metres. Other countries (Australia, Belgium, Germany, Greece, Italy, Netherlands and Portugal) have gone for either 1.5 metres, or one metre (China, Denmark, France, Hong Kong, Lithuania and Singapore).

In the U.K. Johnson has come under pressure from the tourism and hospitality industries to permit people to be physically closer together in pubs, restaurants, salons and spas, or risk the sectors sinking. On the weekend, Johnson said there was a “margin for manoeuvre” in the two-metre rule. The British PM has commissioned a scientific and economic review of the rule, the BBC reported, but some senior scientists, including England’s chief medical officer, have said it will likely have to remain in place for months.

Jedwab expects pressure will mount on Canadian health authorities to revisit the distancing rule. What’s most important is that there be some consistency, he said.

Like the flip-flopping on public non-medical mask wearing, “we’ve been getting a lot of ambiguous messages,” Jedwab said. “You can’t have a situation where I’m walking down Sainte-Catherine’s street (in Montreal) and some people think it’s two metres and some think it’s one. It’s going to be chaotic.

“There’s got to be a clear message because there is still a lot of anxiety out there.” Even though young people disproportionately feel less anxious than at the start of the pandemic, there are many others who remain seriously jittery. Jedwab has seen people walking downtown with measuring tapes. “We have to find a way to manage the gap between the less and most anxious in ways that we don’t see increased friction on the streets and in social interactions between people.”

A study published in the medical journal The Lancet led by McMaster University researchers found that transmission of viruses is lower with distancing of one metre or more, versus a distance of less than one metre. The review, based on studies that focused mostly on MERS and SARS and not COVID-19, found that keeping a distance of one metre reduced the risk of infection from 13 per cent, to three per cent. Every extra metre of separation, up to three metres, doubled the relative protection.

The study simply summarizes available information, “and makes no recommendation on the optimal distance, as policy makers must consider all the available evidence (ours and others) as well as contextual and other factors,” scientific lead Derek Chu, a clinician scientist at McMaster, said in an email.

“Our interpretation of the data supports that the risk of infection decreases with further distance,” Chu said.

Time, or duration of exposure is also likely a factor, as well as settings, he said. Think of the cases of high infection rates that have been reported at funerals, or people singing in choirs or other similar close gatherings.

A study by Ontario scientists found that even two metres might be too close. Using a special cough chamber, Western University researchers reported that when a human infected with seasonal flu coughs, viral droplets can reach a person standing two metres away within three seconds, while the viral droplets will continue to “projective forward” well beyond two metres.

SARS-CoV-2 is primarily spread by coughing, sneezing, speaking, shouting and even talking close to one another. Larger respiratory droplets will fall closer and quicker to the ground, Dr. Theresa Tam, Canada’s chief public health officer, said at a daily briefing Monday. “The bottom line is that one metre can help avoid some of those droplets, two metres would be a bit better.”

Tam warned the virus “is still out there, and will be for the foreseeable future.” As more people move into public spaces it’s more important to keep up with our “learned” public health messages, she added, including physical distancing, frequent hand washing and wearing non-medical masks when people can’t keep “that two-metre distance from others.”

“We’re still learning about this virus and we absolutely should be reviewing evidence as we go along and adjusting guidance accordingly,” she said.

— With files from The Canadian Press

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