Federal government to end pre-arrival COVID testing for travellers entering Canada
The federal authorities is anticipated to announce as quickly as tomorrow that travellers coming into Canada will not must take a pre-arrival COVID-19 take a look at, CBC Information has discovered.
Sources with information of the matter verify Canada is eradicating the testing necessities at airports and land border crossings.
Presently, travellers coming into the nation should present proof of a detrimental antigen or molecular take a look at inside a day of their flight or arrival on the border.
That testing requirement shall be dropped by the top of the month for totally vaccinated travellers, the sources stated.
The transfer comes two years into the pandemic as journey picks up and provinces and territories ease restrictions involving vaccine passports, gatherings and masks.
The federal authorities will proceed to randomly take a look at travellers upon arrival in Canada to establish and monitor variants, the sources stated. The federal government has been spending thousands and thousands of {dollars} on randomly testing vaccinated travellers coming into Canada.
The journey trade has been lobbying the federal government to ease these testing necessities. Shoppers have complained that it is costly and a trouble to search out authorized testing services overseas. Some PCR assessments value upwards of $200, whereas antigen testing sometimes prices nicely underneath $100.
The Canadian Journey and Tourism Roundtable, an trade group, referred to as the testing requirement a “non-science-based” impediment undermining the sector and a “vital deterrent, discouraging worldwide firms from resuming journey into Canada.”
The group identified that the UK, Denmark, Switzerland and Eire had been among the many nations that had dropped the testing necessities already and urged Canada to do the identical by April 1.
Vaccine mandate for air, rail, ship journey stays in impact
Infectious ailments professional Dr. Zain Chagla informed a press convention final month that because the Omicron variant had unfold throughout Canada already, pre- and post-arrival testing is an pointless expense.
The federal government’s vaccine mandate for home and worldwide flights departing from Canada, for VIA Rail and Rocky Mountaineer trains and for cruise ships will stay in impact for now, sources stated.
The federal government modified its guidelines for travellers coming into Canada final month by requiring proof of a detrimental rapid-antigen take a look at, reasonably than a molecular take a look at.
As of Feb. 28, unvaccinated kids underneath the age of 12 coming into Canada not have to keep away from going to daycares, colleges or different crowded settings for 2 weeks.
