Images from Niagara Falls are going viral online, showing the stark difference in how Canadian and American companies and customers are handling social distancing guidance during the pandemic.
The pictures and videos being shared compare two boats, one with a lot of people onboard and one with very few people onboard. The Canadian tour boats are seen with hardly any people onboard, while the American boats have people shoulder-to-shoulder.
@samatha.1617 Niagara Falls, the Canadian boat versus the American boat ##maidofthemist ##canada ##niagarafalls ##fyp
For those not familiar with the international site along the New York-Ontario border, on the American side is a company operating boat tours called Maid of the Mist which gives its passengers blue rain ponchos and on the Canadian side is Hornblower Cruises which gives their riders red ponchos.
Maid of the Mist recently posted on Twitter thanking their customers for social distancing.
Thanks to our guests who continue to follow social distancing guidelines. #MaskUp #StopTheSpread pic.twitter.com/4btP7izdRG
— Maid of the Mist (@maidofthemist) July 22, 2020
Maid of the Mist says on their website they are running at 50 percent capacity and have markers on boats “as a reminder to all of our visitors of the importance to maintain six feet or two meters of distance from others.”
Meanwhile, Hornblower Cruises says they are running at 15 percent capacity.
Some people are saying the images are a visual representation of current coronavirus data. Canada is reporting 112,240 total cases and 8,870 deaths as of July 22. In America, we have 3,882,167 total cases and 141,677 deaths as of July 22.
True, America has many more people than Canada, so the raw numbers of cases can seem skewed. Canada has a population around 37.59M and the U.S. has a population around 328.2M.
That would mean in Canada, .29 percent of the population has had the coronavirus and in the U.S. 1.18 percent of the population has had the coronavirus.