Toronto (Canada) (AFP)

In the midst of the Covid-19 epidemic, Nikki Hillis-Walters, a Canadian nurse practicing in Michigan and Ontario, was asked to choose: to work in her country or in the United States, where the coronavirus is wreaking havoc.

She chose the United States: "They needed me there," she said to AFP.

Like her, about 2,000 Canadian health workers in the Windsor region, a city in the south of the province of Ontario, work in hospitals in Detroit.

Fearing cross-contamination, some hospitals in Ontario asked the few dozen employees working on both sides of the border to choose, during the crisis, which country to work in.

Despite the risks, Nikki Hillis-Walters, who worked weekdays in Canada and weekends in the United States, chose his intensive care position at Beaumont Hospital in Grosse Pointe, east of Detroit.

"I already understood how serious it was going to be when we were asked to choose," said the 38-year-old nurse. "Colleagues were infected, many patients arrived at the hospital."

The ultimatum of Canadian hospitals has been criticized by some caregivers as an ineffective measure, in addition to financial loss, and as an injunction to choose between Canadian and American patients.

"It was not a question of choosing one side over another. Because in the end, by working there to help the sick and prevent the virus from spreading, I also chose Canada", explains for his leaves Nikki Hillis-Walters, married to an American. "It was the best thing for both countries to do."

Windsor and Detroit are only a short drive from each other. The agglomeration of Michigan and its approximately four million inhabitants offers many more opportunities than southern Ontario. Canadian caregivers are also attracted to good wages, coupled with a generally favorable exchange rate.

- "Just my job" -

These caregivers, many of them nurses, are today at the forefront in the fight against the coronavirus which has killed more than 80,000 people in the United States, the most affected country in the world.

Michigan alone has almost the same number of victims as all of Canada, with more than 4,000 deaths.

To contain the contagion, the two countries decided in March to close their border, the longest in the world with 8,900 km, except for the transport of goods and essential workers - such as nurses in Windsor.

In early April, they found themselves unwillingly at the heart of a controversy between the two big neighbors after Donald Trump had ordered the American company 3M to keep its production of N95 masks for the United States - and no longer export to Canada.

The dispute was settled, but the protectionist exit of the American president outraged Canadians who recalled, like Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, how "dependent" hospitals are on Canadian caregivers.

If the words of the American president made him jump, Drew Dilkens, the mayor of Windsor, did not stop campaigning to maintain the flow of caregivers towards Detroit.

"We cannot turn our backs on our neighbors when they are going through a crisis," he told AFP. "For us, Detroit is like our backyard. The border is an imaginary line. And the people of Detroit would be there for us if we needed it."

"Now is not the time to create divisions between our two countries," said Steve Homick, a Canadian who works in the emergency room of another branch of the Beaumont hospital near Detroit.

As he has just lived through the most intense weeks of his young career, the 30-year-old nurse keeps in mind the signs of friendship between the two neighbors. Like these American customs officials who greet him when he crosses the tunnel, now almost deserted, connecting Windsor to Detroit.

"They are grateful that we come to help," he says. "They often say thank you, even if it's not necessary because I'm just doing my job."

© 2020 AFP