Sen. Gary Peters addresses testing, U.S. Canada border closing

ALPENA, Mich. — It’s important that testing is readily available in order to get a full understanding of how widely spread the virus is. Sen. Peters agrees and said that over the next couple of weeks, tests should be exponentially more accessible. “Tests are starting to ramp up but it’s still not enough. We’re hoping that within the next week or two that we can increase that rate substantially,” said Sen. Peters. “It’s been a serious problem for the last couple months. Other countries have responded much more aggressively. South Korea, for example, is now testing tens of thousands of people a day in a much smaller country.”

Earlier today, the U.S. and Canada agreed to close the border between them. With Michigan being so close to Canada, Sen. Peters explained how this new policy will affect the state. “We believe that folks who are necessary or on necessary business will be able to continue to able to go across the border,” he said. “Trade will continue to move across the border. We do have to be concerned about folks coming from Canada into the United States and providing health care. In fact, in the Greater Detroit area, over 5,000 nurses live in Windsor and come every day into the Detroit area and Southeast Michigan to staff hospitals. We have to make sure those nurses can come to work every day. We need them on the front lines of providing health care to people in Southeast Michigan.”

Sen. Peters added that things are changing every day, but he is confident that we as a country will get through it. “As we know from the past, even when we’ve gone through very tough times, we have always come through those and we’ve always been stronger as a nation afterwards, but it takes the effort of all of us, and I’m confident we’re going to get through this and we’ll be stronger in the end.”