Previously, Canada allowed entry of fully vaccinated non-essential travelers from the America on August 9, 2021.
Official Announcement:
On July 19, 2021 Canada announced that they intend to allow all the fully vaccinated travelers including tourists, from around the globe after September 7, 2021. However, there was a condition for domestic epidemiological situation of Canada to be favorable by September 7.
Basis of Announcement and Current Scenario:
The day this announcement was made, the count of COVID cases in Canada was 4573 and cases were decreasing almost on daily basis. But, Canada is currently in 4th wave of pandemic with highly contagious delta variant and cases are increasing rapidly. As of August 24, 2021 Canada has 24,671 active cases of COVID and increasing on daily basis. This number has increased by almost 5 times since July 19.
Previously, federal government has acknowledged multiple times that fully vaccinated travelers can transmit the virus. This was the major reason why fully vaccinated non-essential travelers were not allowed to enter Canada until now.
Current Facts:
Federal officials have been repeatedly saying that more than 89% of new cases are coming in unvaccinated individuals and only 0.6% of new cases are in fully vaccinated individuals. This may play a positive role in allowing fully vaccinated tourists.
Other Factors:
Moreover, there have been a lot of pressure from tourism sector for government to allow fully vaccinated tourists. Allowing fully vaccinated tourists is crucial for tourism industry to recover and summer (tourism season) is almost coming to an end. If Government defers the decision of allowing tourists, then it will be again a bad decision for tourism sector.
Apart from all these, there is a major event in Canada, snap elections on September 20, 2021. Not allowing fully vaccinated travelers for non-essential purpose after September 7 may turn out to be positive for Liberals in the light of protecting Canadians.
Also, Government of Canada’s website have updated their tool which let you assess whether you are eligible to enter Canada during pandemic and the requirements. Now, this tool offers different information for travelers planning to come prior to September 7 and after September 7.
Our Opinion:
September 7 is still tentative and we will get more clarity in coming days, but we believe there are more chances of postponing the entry of fully vaccinated non-essential travelers. Original decision was based on the condition that if Canada’s domestic epidemiological situation stays “favorable,” but as of today, situation is clearly not in favor.