Canada‘s travel restrictions will be eased next month for people visiting from abroad who are considered fully vaccinated against COVID-19.
Health Minister Jean-Yves Duclos said Thursday that starting April 1, fully vaccinated travelers will no longer have to present proof of a negative coronavirus test to enter the country, according to the New York Times.
“Adjustments to Canada’s border measures are made possible by a number of factors,” Duclos said during the press conference.
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The relaxation of the travel requirements comes as Canada has seen a “high vaccination rate” and a decrease in COVID-19 cases, the official said. Duclos also cited “the increasing availability and use of rapid tests to detect infection, decreasing hospitalizations and growing domestic availability of treatments for COVID-19″ as factors in the decision to loosen the requirements.
While travelers who are considered to be fully vaccinated will no longer need proof of a negative test, those who are unvaccinated or considered to be partially vaccinated, having only received the first jab in a two-dose regimen, will still be subject to taking a COVID-19 test a day before flying. Additionally, all travelers will still need to fill out a health information form and may be randomly selected for PCR testing at airports.
“As vaccination levels and healthcare system capacity improve, we will continue to consider further easing of measures at the borders, and when to adjust those measures, to keep the people in Canada safe,” Duclos added.
Several countries — including Denmark, Italy, Belgium, Portugal, France, Ireland, and the United Kingdom — have also begun to ease restrictions such as proof of vaccination, capacity limits, and mask mandates. As COVID-19 case rates have dropped over the past several weeks, states and cities in the United States have also relaxed COVID-19 restrictions and guidance, mask and vaccine mandates, for example.
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As pandemic restrictions and guidance are loosened globally, Europe and the U.K. are experiencing a rise in cases stemming from the BA.2 subvariant of the omicron variant. The variant has been dubbed by officials as a “stealth” variant, as it lacks certain genetic changes that would make it detectable in PCR tests.
Since the start of the pandemic, Canada has reported 3,379,200 coronavirus cases and 37,020 deaths attributable to the virus.
