Steve Scherer

OTTAWA (Reuters). Canada will make it easier for international fully vaccinated travellers to Canada from February 28, as COVID-19 numbers decline. Officials said Tuesday that the rapid antigen testing would allow travelers to be admitted faster than a molecular test.

At a briefing, federal ministers announced the new measures which included dropping mandatory testing at entry. Jean-Yves Duclos from Health Minister announced that Canada will no longer require coronavirus testing to be performed on Canadians travelling abroad for short periods of time – not more than 72 hours.

Duclos said that the changes in Canada are possible due to Omicron being passed, as well as because Canadians listen to scientists and experts.”

According to health ministers, about 80% are fully vaccinated. Over 40% also have received a booster.

Canadians are also changing their global travel advice. It was previously recommended that citizens avoid all travel other than essential. However, it now only urges them to exercise caution.

“Though this announcement moves us one step closer towards where our industry needs be, by requiring predeparture rapid blood antigen tests, government missed an opportunity align with other jurisdictions that eliminated predeparture testing requirements for fully-vaccinated travelers,” said the Canadian Travel and Tourism Roundtable.

Many provinces in Canada, such as Alberta, Saskatchewan, Quebec, and Ontario announced Monday a lifting of the restrictions that were imposed by the pandemic. This is because coronavirus infection rates have fallen.

Ontario announced it would accelerate its plans to eliminate proof-of vaccination requirements and remove pandemic-related capacities limits for many companies, while Alberta’s western province ended Monday’s mask requirements for schoolchildren.

For weeks, protesters blocked the border crossings of Canada and paralyzed Ottawa’s center asking governments to ease pandemic restrictions. Protesters have blocked border crossings and paralyzed the center of Ottawa for weeks asking governments to ease them. Instead, provincial premiers claim that they no longer need to loosen restrictions in order to control COVID-19.