From April 1 Canada will no longer need vaccination testing

Travelers who are fully vaccinated will soon be permitted to enter Canada without having to submit a negative coronavirus test, according to the country’s public health service, which announced the change last week.

The relaxed policy will take effect on April 1 and will apply to guests who arrive by air, land, or sea, among other modes of transportation.

Visitors aged five and older must undergo a quick antigen test within one day of their departure for Canada or a polymerase chain reaction (PCR) within 72 hours of their journey until that time.

In addition, a previous positive test that is at least 10 days old may be used as evidence of recovery in place of a current test. Travelers entering Canada are required to input the details of their journey as well as evidence of immunization to an online system known as ArriveCAN before departing.

Travelers who have not been properly immunized will continue to be subjected to the same testing procedures after April 1. People who do not have a complete set of vaccinations may be refused entrance to Canada and subjected to a 14-day quarantine as well as extra testing.

Reduced coronavirus cases, high vaccination rates, and tight vaccination requirements for international travel were all noted as reasons that “laid the scene” for the relaxation of travel restrictions, according to a statement published with the announcement by Health Minister Jean-Yves Duclos.

According to monitoring data provided by The Washington Post, 82.6 percent of Canada’s population has received all of their vaccinations, making it one of the world’s highest vaccination rates.

Over the week preceding up to the announcement on Thursday, the number of daily cases decreased by 11 percent, to 89 instances per 100,000 persons in the nation.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in the United States still considers Canada to be a Level 4 risk for the transmission of coronavirus, and they advise avoiding traveling to a nation with a “very high” warning.

Canada’s decision to relax testing rules for travelers who have received vaccinations follows similar steps in Europe and – more recently – Southeast Asian countries.

Cambodia removed the need for tourists who have been vaccinated on Thursday, with effect immediately. Vietnam had reopened its tourist visa program and removed its quarantine requirements for international tourists only a day ago, but the country’s pre-travel testing requirement remained in effect.

Meanwhile, the Indian Ocean vacation spots of the Maldives, Mauritius, and the Seychelles have all eliminated the necessity for a positive PCR test result for visitors who have had a vaccination in the last year.

As much as lifting travel restrictions expresses a desire to re-energize economies and “live with the virus,” scientists warn breakouts of an omicron subvariant known as BA.2 in Western Europe might herald the arrival of a new wave of omicron infections in the United States.