(Fighting against New Coronary Pneumonia) Canada will cancel pre-entry virus testing requirements for fully vaccinated travelers
China News Agency, Toronto, March 17 (Reporter Yu Ruidong) People who have received a full dose of the new crown vaccine will no longer need to provide a virus test report when they enter Canada from April 1.
The Canadian government announced on March 17 the above-mentioned new measures to further ease the restrictions on entry and epidemic prevention.
However, any inbound personnel may still need to be randomly selected for molecular testing of the virus at that time.
Passengers do not need to be quarantined while waiting for the results of the random test.
Canadian Health Minister Duclos said that as the level of vaccination and the capacity of the medical system improve, the authorities will continue to consider further relaxation of immigration prevention measures.
Tourism Minister Bovassonno said Canada's reopening could benefit its economy, workers and tourism.
The Canadian government has relaxed a number of entry-level anti-epidemic measures since the end of February, thus starting the steps to ease travel restrictions in stages.
Passengers can enter the country with rapid antigen test results instead of nucleic acid (PCR) test results, and inbound passengers who have been vaccinated in full doses are not required to undergo mandatory testing.
Passengers who have not been fully vaccinated are still required to quarantine for 14 days and be tested upon entry and on day 8.
The Canadian government also recently announced measures to resume cruise tourism this spring.
Several local governments in Canada have also gradually eased public epidemic prevention restrictions recently.
Ontario, which has the highest cumulative number of cases in the country, will lift its mandatory mask-wearing order in schools and most public places starting March 21.
Many other provinces have also cancelled or are preparing to cancel the mask order, cancel the use of vaccination vouchers, and relax or cancel the restrictions on the number of people in public places.
However, an epidemiological model released by the Ontario Epidemic Scientific Advisory Group on the 17th showed that, driven by the Omicron BA.2 subtype variant, there are still signs of a rebound in the province's epidemic. It is expected that the hospital intensive care unit The number of admitted cases will increase by a third in May compared to now.
On the 17th, the Canadian Ministry of Health authorized the US pharmaceutical company Moderna's new crown vaccine (market name Spikevax) to be used in children 6 to 11 years old, and the injection dose is half of those over 12 years old.
This is the second new crown vaccine officially approved by Canada for use in younger age groups.
Previously, Pfizer’s vaccine was the first to be approved for use in children aged 5 to 11.
At present, the cumulative number of reported cases in Canada is nearly 3.38 million, with more than 37,000 deaths and more than 115,000 active cases.
Canada's average daily test positivity rate in the last seven days was 13.4%, an increase from last week.
Nearly 85% of the country's total population has received at least one dose of the new crown vaccine, and about 81% have achieved full dose vaccination.
(over)