The federal government plans to announce changes to border health measures this week. A COVID-19 that has become endemic and the worst of Omicron behind invites us to apply measures that are rational and proportional to the risk.
In an open letter to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, the Canadian Travel and Tourism Roundtable calls for an end to COVID-19 travel restrictions. “Canada is entering a new phase of the COVID-19 pandemic, marked by widespread vaccination against the virus among the Canadian population and a high rate of previous infections, which now allows many medical officers of health to qualify endemic virus. »
“From Denmark to the UK, Switzerland, Ireland and Norway, many forward-thinking countries have recognized that now is the time to lift COVID-19 travel restrictions for people fully vaccinated. We think Canada should do the same. This letter includes 32 signatories in senior leadership positions across chambers of commerce and the tourism, travel, hospitality, airport, airline and concert-event industries.
“Since the start of the pandemic, only 1% of all positive COVID-19 cases in Canada have been travel-related. Moreover, throughout the last wave of infections, the rate of positive tests in the general population has reached ten times that which has been observed at our borders,” these leaders write.
A text by colleague Boris Proulx published in The duty of January 22 indicated that, according to December data from the Public Health Agency of Canada, one out of twenty fully vaccinated international travelers discovered that they had contracted COVID-19 thanks to the mandatory PCR test at the airport. And this, even if it is required to show proof of a negative PCR test dating back less than three days to board a plane.
While previously only a fraction of 1% of these tests came back positive, positivity rates increased dramatically between the weeks of December 12 (0.74%), December 19 (2.26%) and December 26 ( 4.93%), could we read. This illustrates the degree of contagiousness of Omicron.
By way of comparison, in terms of the risk associated with international travel, the positivity rate on tests carried out at the land border between Canada and the United States reached 12% on samples from vaccinated travelers randomly selected during the following week. Christmas. For partially or unvaccinated people who crossed the border during the same week, the rate was 19%. Overall, the positivity rate of PCR tests carried out in Quebec screening centers peaked at more than 30% in the first days of January, continues the text of the Duty.
The time sample may be small, but it is telling. Moreover, the federal Minister of Health, Jean-Yves Duclos, promised Friday changes to health measures at the borders based on “science and caution”. “With the worst of Omicron behind us, our government is actively evaluating the measures in place at our borders. We should be able to communicate changes on this subject as early as next week, ”he said according to comments collected by The Canadian Press.
Most severe restrictions
On the map of the International Air Transport Association (IATA, in English) offering a review of the measures applied by the countries, we observe, for Canada, a long list of restrictions, which makes it one of the destinations applying the most severe restrictions on entry into its territory. Adequate vaccination, negative PCR test 72 hours before arrival, then compulsory test on arrival with isolation pending the results… We still wonder if Canada has not overreacted.
Citing the results of a study conducted in Italy and Finland, IATA in February urged countries in Europe and the United States to reduce restrictions on international travelers to adequate vaccination. “Omicron’s experience has clearly shown that travel restrictions have little or no impact in preventing its spread. Moreover, as Omicron is already widely present […] fully vaccinated travelers pose no additional risk to the local population. International travelers should not be subject to any additional screening requirements beyond what applies to domestic travel. In fact, at this point in the pandemic, travel should be managed the same way as access to malls, restaurants or offices,” said IATA Director General Willie Walsh.
This goes for Canada.