Canada has opened up its borders to fully vaccinated foreign travellers


While the Canadian government has implemented strong measures to ensure fully vaccinated foreign travellers coming into Canada, it won't be a significant source of COVID-19 spread, those protections will certainly not eliminate the risk, medical experts say. Confirm your PR status with immigration consultants in nehru place

Under the measures, travellers must be fully vaccinated with a Canadian-approved vaccine at least 14 days prior to arriving. They must have received a negative COVID-19 test within 72 hours of their scheduled flight or their arrival at a land border crossing.

On Tuesday, Canada opened its borders to fully vaccinated non-essential foreign travellers from across the globe, allowing them to skip the 14-day quarantine requirement. Canada is currently in the midst of a fourth wave of COVID-19 fuelled by the delta variant. However, most of the country's cases and hospitalizations are among the unvaccinated.

Low test positivity rate at border

According to the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA), the volume of travellers has increased in recent months, but the border test positivity rate for COVID-19 has remained low.

Meanwhile, the full rate of breakthrough cases — those in which a person has been infected despite being fully vaccinated — is still unknown, he said.

The government has introduced special requirements for travellers arriving from India or Morocco. Due to a recent surge in COVID-19 cases, all direct passenger flights from India have been suspended until Sept. 21 and from Morocco until Sept. 29. Currently, air passengers from those countries can only enter Canada if they show proof of a negative test taken in a different country and depart from that country to come to Canada. Your Canada PR consultant in Delhi will guide you on this properly.

 'Viruses do cross borders'

Dr. Marek Smieja, scientific director of McMaster Health Labs and a professor of pathology and molecular medicine at McMaster University in Hamilton, suggested there should be some concern about the potential of imported variants. He noted that the alpha and delta variants were both imported into Canada from abroad.

"Viruses do cross borders. And the question is: What's the most prudent way of allowing a reasonable amount of travel?" he said. "There's no doubt there will be new variants."

In terms of potential exposure to COVID, a foreign traveller who's fully vaccinated and tested coming into Canada is likely safer than those many people encounter on a daily basis, Smieja said.

Neighbour poses higher risk 

"I would argue that the neighbour in the supermarket who isn't wearing their mask properly above their nose and actually hasn't been vaccinated is a higher risk than the person crossing a border," Smieja said.

Make sure you are taking the help of the ICCRC certified Canada immigration consultants in India.

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