Starting Feb. 28, fully vaccinated travellers will no longer have to take a PCR-style test to enter Canada. Federal Health Minister Jean-Yves Duclos today said travellers will still be required to take a pre-arrival test but will be allowed to make it a rapid antigen test, which can be purchased more easily than PCR tests, and are a fraction of the cost. Those rapid tests will have to be taken with 24 hours of a scheduled departure to Canada or 24 hours before a traveller arrives at a Canadian land border crossing, Duclos said. There were reports that the changes Read more
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Restrictions are being eased in two Canadian provinces popular with tourists. Ontario Premier Doug Ford today said his province will end its COVID-19 vaccine passport system beginning on March 1, and that changes for restaurants and other businesses are coming later this week. All capacity limits in restaurants, bars, cinemas and gyms will be lifted as of Thursday, a move that was set to take effect on Feb. 21, the CBC notes. The province of Nova Scotia today entered phase 1 of its’ three-step plan to ease restrictions, upping the limit for informal gatherings and lifting all restrictions for domestic Read more
Multiple reports say the Canadian government will end PCR test requirementw for fully vaxxed Canadians, probably by the end of February. CTV News says a senior government source said Ottawa will change the rules so that fully vaccinated Canadians will only need to show proof of a negative rapid antigen test to get back into the country, rather than a PCR test. The network said the Trudeau government is “set to remove those requirements at the end of the month.” The CBC says its sources also indicate the move is imminent. The current rules require travellers coming into Canada to Read more
The Canadian government says it should be able to announce changes to COVID-19 travel restrictions next week. Speaking at a press event today in Ottawa, Health Minister Jean-Yves Duclos said that “the worst of Omicron is behind us” and that “we should be able to communicate changes next week.” Canada has been requiring all travellers, including Canadians with two vaccinations or even two vaccinations and a booster, to take a PCR-style COVID-19 test within 72 hours of their scheduled departure. That rule has come under increasing fire, with two well-known Canadian doctors on Thursday calling the testing “futile” and “obsolete.” Read more
Two prominent Canadian doctors are calling for an end to Canada’s “futile” and “obsolete” PCR testing rules. Speaking at a Canadian Travel and Tourism Roundtable press event at Toronto Pearson Airport, Dr. Zain Chagla, Infectious Diseases Physician and Associate Professor at McMaster University, said COVID-19 testing at the border doesn’t make any sense. “Travel is no more risky than other activities and there is no scientific reason to single it out,” Chagla said. “When first put in place, Canada’s travel rules were designed to keep COVID-19 out of the country. Now that the virus is here and community spread is Read more
