VANCOUVER -- An Ottawa doctor spearheading a petition urging for a large-scale lockdown to curb the spread of COVID-19 is warning not enough Canadians are taking the virus and its impacts seriously.

Dr. Britt Harrison says she consulted with a number of doctors about the contents of the Change.org petition, which comes in the form of an open letter to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau urging “further action to aggressively halt the spread of coronavirus through this country.”

“It's hard to make these decisions in a country that loves freedom of choice,” Harrison told CTV News, pointing to Chinese lockdown efforts that even had drone surveillance for rule-breakers. “That is probably never going to happen in Canada but we could have a full-on lockdown, we could have the prime minister say 'stay in your house, only go out for groceries.' but that hasn't happened yet"

At a Monday press conference, Trudeau did say “all Canadians, as much as possible, should stay home," but Harrison worries that message isn’t taken seriously by Canadians.

“We have to be thinking that COVID is out there on every surface, basically,” she said.

While British Columbia was an early leader in testing and social distancing, Alberta and Ontario have since caught up and in some cases gone even further, ordering everything from daycares to museums to temporarily cease operations. B.C. provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry ordered bars and nightclubs closed on Wednesday, but the majority of other closures in the province have been at the discretion of the companies themselves or on a municipality-by-municipality basis.

“We believe that ... by taking the steps we've taken – dramatic steps in the last couple days – we can prepare ourselves for the weeks and potentially months to come," said Health Minister Adrian Dix in Victoria.

California, meanwhile, has more than 7 million people in the Bay Area under “shelter-in-place” orders for three weeks in an effort to curb the spread of COVID-19; they’re only allowed to leave home for food and other necessary outings. On Tuesday, New York City Mayor Bill DiBlasio said New Yorkers should be prepared for a similar move, suggesting the decision could be made by Thursday.

Asymptomatic carriers a growing concern

“The incubation period can extend beyond 14 days (up to 29.9 days) before people start showing initial symptoms,” says Harrison’s petition. “Studies also show that transmission of the virus does occur during the asymptomatic incubation period, where people can unknowingly pass the virus to their contacts as they go about their day to day life.”

On Monday, Columbia university’s Mailman School of Public Health reinforced those concerns with a paper titled “ 'Stealth Transmission' Fuels Fast Spread of Coronavirus Outbreak.”

Researchers found that rapid spread of COVID-19 in China came from undetected cases, which were “likely not severely symptomatic,” meaning people with mild or no symptoms unknowingly spread the disease to others.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control currently maintains that, though there is some evidence of asymptomatic transmission, that is "not thought to be the main way the virus spreads."

Treatment for the sick

As the number of infections continues to grow, nearly doubling in B.C. alone on Tuesday, there are still no drugs or anti-virals that make for an easy cure for the sickness.

A particularly sobering section of Harrison’s petition addresses this:

"We have no proven therapies. We have limited capacity in hospital beds/ICU/ventilators and already short-staffed medical personnel. We have limited protective equipment and sampling materials. We are facing further depletion from colleagues who will be in quarantine due to exposure, infection or even worse complications."

Harrison insists this is another case where the old adage “an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure,” is apt, and that closure of all non-essential businesses and services is the best option.

“Due to the lack of understanding of the general population to the importance of self-isolation even when asymptomatic and the business/legal consequences of self-isolation, effective proactive measures to flatten the curve of transmission and thus prevent the catastrophic spike of infection will not be feasible if not mandated by the government,” she wrote.