Our best hope of returning to a normal world is getting covid vaccine since early in the pandemic. A big part of this is the resumption of international travel.
All effective vaccine brings this prospect much closer and achievable. But vaccines alone won’t ensure a safe return to international travel. There are several other things countries will need to consider, like people not getting side effects and getting infected with a new mutation of the virus, and get sick.
As UK and USA lead the world in vaccinating their citizens against COVID, we’re seeing clear indications that getting vaccinated might be the game changer in getting confinement-weary citizens back on the road again.
Traveling abroad in the age of a Covid vaccine
When people are vaccinated before boarding a flight, it will reduce the risk of Covid-19 transmission associated with international travel. However, the data we have at the moment doesn’t tell us everything we need to know. Although the vaccines appear to be safe with only mild side effects in some participants. And notably, the study included people aged 65 and over and those with health conditions that put them at higher risk of more severe disease.
While it’s encouraging to know a vaccine stops people from getting sick. This puts something of a dampener on vaccination being the key to the safe resumption of international travel. At this stage, we also don’t know how long immunity will last for those vaccinated. But as this will continue for several more months, some of this data should become available soon.
It’s going to take months — or, more realistically, years — to vaccinate everybody who wants to be vaccinated. It won’t be feasible to expect every single person traveling internationally to be vaccinated. There are several countries that appear never to have had community transmission. Clearly, people from high-risk areas or countries will still need to quarantine on arrival, unless they have been vaccinated.
Canada is easing its travel restrictions -Vaccinated travelers can skip quarantine
Since the start of the pandemic, Canada has kept its borders closed to most non-essential traffic and required a 14-day quarantine for travelers allowed to enter.
The government upped the ante in late February, mandating that travelers take a COVID-19 test upon arrival and that air passengers spend part of their quarantine at a designated hotel until they receive test results.
However, Ottawa announced on Wednesday that all fully vaccinated travelers currently allowed to enter Canada will soon be able to skip the 14-day quarantine requirement, including the mandated hotel stay. Instead, they’ll have to show proof of a negative pre-departure COVID-19 test, take another test upon arrival, and self-isolate until that test comes back negative.
The government has not yet set a date for the rule change but says it “hopes” to implement it by early July.
“These changes will only be made if the [COVID-19] case count continues to drop and if the vaccination campaign continues to go well,” said Intergovernmental Affairs Minister Dominic LeBlanc in French at a news conference on Wednesday.
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