With cases of the omicron variant of COVID-19 growing around the world, the Justin Trudeau government in Ottawa is slapping new travel restrictions on all travellers coming from countries other than the United States.
The government today said anyone coming into Canada from a country other than the U.S. will have to be tested at the airport and isolate until they get their results. That applies to travellers who are double vaccinated, said Health Minister Jean-Yves Duclos.
“All air travelers coming from outside Canada, apart from the United States, will now need to be tested at the airport in which they are landing in Canada whether they are vaccinated or unvaccinated. They will then need to isolate themselves until they get the result of their test,” he said.
The tests will be required of all travellers, regardless of their vaccination status. The CBC reports that the requirement will also apply to Canadian citizens and permanent residents.
The on-arrival tests are in addition to the PCR-style tests that anyone has to take within 72 hours of their scheduled departure for Canada.
Duclos said only those who arrive without a safe place to quarantine or those who come from the ten banned countries will have to go to a quarantine hotel or other designated isolation facility.
He said the new measures will be implemented “as quickly and as much as possible over the next few days.”
Duclos also said the government is adding Egypt, Nigeria and Malawi to its travel ban list. The Liberals last Friday announced that they were banning travel from seven African countries because of the variant: South Africa, Mozambique, Namibia, Zimbabwe, Botswana, Lesotho and Eswatini.
Foreign nationals who have been in those countries in the past two weeks will not be allowed to enter Canada. Canadians and permanent residents and others with a right to return to Canada will have to be tested at the airport of their arrival and stay in quarantine until they get their test result.
Immigration Minister Marco Mendicino said Canada is considering how it might bring in mandatory tests for all travellers, including Americans coming by land and air, should the need arise.
Duclos said he would be speaking with provincial premiers about that issue later today.
The move will likely be popular with voters, but it’s a major blow for Canadian tourism given that foreign residents will have to be tested and go into quarantine while they wait for test results, possibly for a few days if past evidence is any guide.
It’s a blow for airlines, too, as many visitors and Canadians will want to avoid taking an airport test upon arrival and then going into quarantine while they await results.
“This is indeed another blow as the Canadian tourism sector was slowly seeing more action,” said Frederic Dimanche, director of the Ted Rogers School of Hospitality and Tourism Management at Ryerson University in Toronto. “This will of course lead to a significant decline in visitor arrivals. International visitors will not be willing to go through this.
“It is interesting to note that travellers arriving from the USA are exempted from that measure, and I don’t understand the logic, other than to observe that Canada probably does not want to be overwhelmed by the number of testing they face with the number of people coming from the USA,” he said in an email.
“The measure will satisfy the people who are asking for travel bans (Canada also ban travellers coming from at least 10 African countries), although we know that this is based on political optics than on scientific evidence. We cannot blame the government for making efforts to protect us… but we know that testing and community tracing remain the most effective means to stop the spread of the virus without affecting the economy too much,” Dimanche said.
“The travel and tourism sector appears to be again the easy scapegoat to pick on.”
Mike McNaney, president and CEO of the National Airlines Council of Canada, said the Canadian aviation industry will move to implement the new rules.
But he said that he expects the new measures “will be adjusted as further study is carried out on the variant, and that the impact on the relaunch of the travel and tourism sector will be manageable.”
“However, the economic uncertainty facing aviation cannot be overstated,” he said. “As the variant is reviewed by public health authorities, we expect the government will move forward through science and data based decision making, tied to clear metrics.”
Duclos today also said the Liberal government has asked the National Advisory Committee on Immunization to provide “quick guidance on whether we should revise national standards, national attitudes and actions on the use of boosters in Canada in the context of the new omicron variant.”
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I agree that excluding the US from the measure is dumb and discriminatory! The rules need to be the same for everybody!