The government of Canada is implementing stricter COVID-19 measures for travellers arriving in the country.
On January 29, 2021, Canada’s Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau, announced stricter travel restrictions in the country, which was a result of several weeks of pressure from different provinces.
Effective January 31, 2021, many airlines, including Air Canada, Sunwing, WestJet, and Air Transat, are suspending their flights to sun destinations. These new COVID-19 measures will be effective until April 30. The Prime Minister praised these airlines for working together with the federal government to impose these new measures.
From the first week of February, international flights can land in a few cities, including Montreal, Vancouver, Toronto, and Calgary. Furthermore, travellers arriving in Canada must take the COVID-19 Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) test after landing. Travellers have to stay in a hotel designated by the Canadian government.
They are required to pay for this three-day stay by themselves while waiting for the test results. The Prime Minister said that this procedure would cost around CAD$ 2,000 to travellers. In case of negative results, travellers are required to quarantine themselves at home for a duration of 14 days, which includes those three days spent at the hotel. On the other hand, travellers with a positive result would need to put up at a facility designated by the government.
Moreover, the Prime Minister announced that all travellers coming to Canada from the U.S. border would need to take the test upon arrival and show negative results.
Recently, international travellers have become a major concern due to the origination of multiple variants of coronavirus in different countries, including the United Kingdom, Brazil, and South Africa.
Another important reason for implementing these new travel restrictions is to protect the health of Canadians, especially considering that spring break is around the corner.
Prime Minister Trudeau has also asked the residents to cancel all such planned future trips that are non-essential. He further suggested that the federal government has implemented a few additional measures, including conducting rapid tests at the airport for travellers and mandatory quarantine at a designated hotel at travellers’ own expense.
Since March, Canada has been regulating travel from the U.S. and other countries. Moreover, the current restrictions on non-essential travel to the U.S. and other countries will be in effect for a minimum period until February 21, 2021.
There are certain categories of people who are exempt from these travel restrictions, including Canadian citizens, permanent residents, specific international students, specific temporary foreign workers, and family members of Canadians (immediate and extended).
Canada further demands all international air travellers aged five years or above to take the COVID-19 Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) test and show a negative result within 72 hours after landing in Canada. After taking the test, all the travellers must quarantine for a 14-day period upon arrival in Canada. Furthermore, they are required to prepare the quarantine plan before arriving in Canada to specify how and where the quarantine will be carried out.
Also, travellers are required to use the ArriveCAN app to share their details with Canadian border services officers and get a note of the coronavirus measures to be followed at the border. All incoming travellers must use this application to carry out daily self-assessments to make sure that the quarantine process is completed, as specified.
Some provinces have been showing declined numbers of new coronavirus cases. In the recent press conferences, the Prime Minister confirmed that even with the threat of protectionist measures by the European Union to restrict exports and delays in manufacturing, vaccines would continue to arrive in Canada. While announcing the new measures, Trudeau reiterated that the government is on track to make sure that everyone in the country will be vaccinated against COVID-19 by September this year.
He further mentioned that research shows that incoming travellers contribute to only 2 percent of total COVID-19 cases in Canada, which confirms the effectiveness of the restrictions imposed by the country.
