WINDSOR, ONT -- A local nurse is getting ready to start a new job in the U.S. and she’s already having issues crossing the border.
Lisa Halley starts work at Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit on Monday, but getting the job wasn’t an easy process.
“I myself as a nurse have dealt with the Ebola, the SARS and all the other epidemics in the last years and it’s very anxiety promoting,” says Halley.
She spent four years working at the Rehab Institute of Michigan, before leaving six months ago.
She tried looking for work in Windsor but had no luck, so she applied online for a job at Henry Ford.
Two weeks ago she was set to have an in-person interview.
“Patrol said to me we’ll let you go to your interview that’s no problem but you know the Canadian side is giving girls a really hard time coming back,” says Halley.
At the border, she was sent to secondary and was there for a mere five minutes before she decided not to attend the interview.
She headed back to Canada.
“She comes back with two covid tests and says I have to quarantine for 14 days and do these two covid tests. I wasn’t truly exposed and I think we need to use more common sense.”
So a lengthy process began.
“There was a tele health nurse that I had to go online, do a visit with her. So two tele healths visits and then they picked it up off my front porch by Purolator.”
Halley complete her two week quarantine Sunday.
She will be given a COVID-19 test by the hospital to help with any concerns she may have crossing back into Windsor on her first day.
“When I come home tomorrow are they going to give me a hard time? I can’t be quarantined because I’m starting a new job.”
Halley will also be vaccinated on Monday.
On-site testing has begun at the Ambassador Bridge and Windsor-Detroit Tunnel.
According to CBSA, essential workers such as Halley may be exempt from pre-arrival testing and quarantine requirements.
“Nurses know better than anyone. We don’t want it either, so we’re going to protect ourselves and our friends and family.”
