The Canadian government on Tuesday will announce that people no longer need to show proof of COVID-19 vaccination to board a domestic and outbound international plane or train, two federal sources told Global News.
Reuters is also reporting that the government will lift vaccine mandates as a requirement for working in the public service, citing a government source.
Steve MacKinnon, the chief government whip, told reporters on Tuesday morning that the travel vaccine mandates will be “suspended” rather than permanently removed, given the uncertain nature of COVID-19 and what future variants could emerge.
“We’re following the science. We’re following the advice that we’re getting, and we’re observing, of course, a marked decline in the number of cases and therefore in the threat to public health, and so I think it’s time to move on from of these measures,” MacKinnon said.
Conservatives say travel backlogs result of vaccine mandates, Liberals defends their necessity
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Omicron COVID-19 variant likely to re-infect ‘over and over again,’ experts say
It comes as the effectiveness of vaccine mandates continue to face questions in what could well be described as the Age of Omicron — the immune-evasive variant that has proved adept at infecting vaccinated people, though the vaccines remain effective at preventing severe illness.
The federal Liberals put the vaccine mandate in place last fall, when the Delta variant remained the dominant strain of the virus and vaccines were much more effective at preventing both transmission and infection than they are against the newer Omicron variants.
News that the mandate will be lifting also comes one day after Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced he has tested positive for COVID-19 for the second time in six months. He is fully vaccinated.
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Canadian airports are also struggling to keep up with the surge in travellers taking to the skies once again following two and a half years largely homebound amid pandemic public health measures.
Hours-long delays at Toronto’s Pearson International Airport have put COVID-19 measures in the spotlight. And though Ottawa recently suspended randomized COVID-19 testing at customs, the remaining measures have been the subject of criticism from the travel industry.
What’s behind the continued delays at Canada’s airports?
The United States also dropped random COVID-19 testing last week, citing “the science and data that this requirement is no longer necessary at this time.”
Canadian airlines officials have been quick to put the blame on the federal government, arguing the COVID-19 measures including vaccine mandates and random testing were the cause of delays.
At the same time, airports around the world have faced similar challenges including at London’s Heathrow airport and Amsterdam’s Schiphol airport — one of the busiest in Europe.
Governments around the world are assessing the best ways to move forward as the pandemic begins to shift into a more endemic phase — one that experts say will likely be marked by re-infection.
“The Omicron variant, in particular, seems to be one that will re-infect people over and over again,” Kelly McNagny, professor of medical genetics at the University of British Columbia’s school for biomedical engineering, told Global News last month.
“It’s a little bit more like the common cold virus that tends to infect the upper airways, which is a place where you tend not to develop strong immunity easily.”
COVID-19: U.S. to drop mandatory testing for inbound international air travellers
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