As a result, as of Saturday, June 11, only unvaccinated travelers will have to take a test upon entering Canada, said a knowledgeable policy source who was not authorized to speak in public. Until now, fully vaccinated travelers have undergone a random COVID-19 test upon arrival. The policy change is billed as a “pause” because random arrival trials will be suspended between Saturday and June 30 – and the government could reinstate it. Canada is one of the few western countries to have some form of arrival test in this last stage of the pandemic. Critics, including some public health experts, have said that such a testing regime is unnecessary now that there is widespread physical and vaccine-induced immunity to the virus. They called it the political bureaucratic burden it has added to the already long delays at airports, which struggle with clogged customs facilities. The government has defended the arrival test program as a way to monitor how many COVID-19 cases are slipping in the country. They also said the program could be used to detect new virus variants of concern. The United States, which has never had arrival tests, announced on Friday that it would abandon the pre-entry test requirement for air travel. From Sunday, passengers traveling to the US will not need to take a test before boarding a flight. The government is also expected to announce that in the coming weeks, arrival tests for unvaccinated travelers will be relocated – meaning that these travelers will no longer have to take a sample for testing at the airport. This change will mean that airports can dismantle special test sites that have taken up space at customs. More follows …
