Monday July 19, 2021 | NATIONAL
by Mary P Brooke, Editor | Island Social Trends
Fully vaccinated citizens and permanent residents of the United States will be allowed to visit Canada again starting August 9, 2021, without having to quarantine for two weeks amidst the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.
The government said it then plans to open Canada’s borders to fully vaccinated travellers from all other countries on September 7.
The time lag between allowing visitors from the USA and all other countries could have at least two reasons:
- First to help local Canadian economies (and in particular border towns) take economic advantage of some additional spending by tourists in the summer months.
- And second, to work out any glitches in the visitor-entry before dealing with further complexities of other countries where language differences and/or bureaucratic processes might still require sorting out or streamlining.
Today it was also announced that — as of August 9 — children under 12 (who aren’t yet approved to receive a vaccine) will be exempt from the quarantine requirement after entering Canada and can move around with their parents if they follow public health measures.
But children can still acquire the COVID infection and spread the virus, and therefore those children are to avoid group settings such as school, camps and daycares — especially indoor ones.
Proof of vaccination:
Foreign travellers entering Canada will need to present proof (in either English or French) that they’ve received a complete round of one of the vaccines authorized for use in Canada. That means two doses of either the Pfizer, Moderna or AstraZeneca products, or one dose of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, at least 14 days before arriving.
All travellers must use the government’s ArriveCAN portal to submit their information. If they meet the government’s criteria, they will not have to quarantine upon arrival in Canada.
Anyone entering Canada would also have to follow provincial and territorial public health measures.
The continuing pandemic:
According to the Public Health Agency of Canada COVID data, this country has seen 26,504 deaths due to COVID-19 so far (1,763 in BC), and daily cases continue to be reported (currently there are 4,608 active cases in Canada, with 662 of those in BC); across Canada there were 136 deaths in just the last seven days.
The B.1.617.2 Delta variant of the COVID-19 virus is of continuing concern (evidently it spreads more easily and causes more severe illness), especially among those in the population who are unvaccinated or only partially vaccinated (i.e. one dose of two).
Meanwhile, economies in every province are opening up out of social and economic necessity. BC will be nearly fully-open with Step 4 at September 7, even though that’s the beginning of the 2021-2022 fall-winter respiratory season (influenza, RSV, and now COVID).
There might also be a federal election in September (based on current political clues). This will allow for further mix of viral spread in the population where — according to the Public Health Agency of Canada vaccination data — presently only 68.8% of all Canadians (all ages) have received a first dose, and 43.74% are fully vaccinated (i.e. have received a second dose).
