TORONTO (WBEN/AP) — The Canadian government announced Monday it will no longer require people to wear masks on planes to guard against COVID-19.
Transport Canada said the existing rules for masks will come off Oct. 1
“We are able to do this because tens of millions of Canadians rolled up their sleeves and got vaccinated,” Transport Minister Omar Alghabra said. According to ourworldindata.org, over 83% of Canada's population is fully-vaccinated.
Government officials also confirmed Canada is dropping the vaccine requirement for people entering the country at the end of the month.
"U.S. citizens can travel over across the border to Canada without having to worry about the ArriveCan app. They will no longer need that at all and those people who were not vaccinated that could not come in before Saturday, will now be able to enter into Canada and proof of vaccination will no longer be asked for," says Attorney Jamie Fiegel.
Canada, like the United States, requires foreign nationals to be vaccinated when entering the country. No change in the mandate is expected in the U.S. in the near term.
Unvaccinated foreign travelers who are allowed to enter Canada are currently subject to mandatory arrival tests and a 14-day quarantine.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s government has agreed to let a cabinet order enforcing mandatory COVID-19 vaccination requirements at the border expire Sept. 30. The Associated Press reported last week Trudeau signed off on it.
The government is also ending random COVID-19 testing at airports. Filling out information in what became an unpopular ArriveCan app will also no longer be required. Some blamed it for delays at airports.
The government will also no longer be required passengers to have pre-board tests for cruise ships.
“The removal of border measures has been facilitated by a number of factors, including modelling that indicates that Canada has largely passed the peak of the Omicron BA.4- and BA.5-fuelled wave, Canada’s high vaccination rates, lower hospitalization and death rates, as well as the availability and use of vaccine boosters (including new bivalent formulation), rapid tests, and treatments for COVID-19,” the government said in a release.
The United States is expected to follow suit with Canada by lifting their restrictions, "I do foresee the U.S. government having a response to this, hopefully at a border level first, lifting that requirement of vaccinations for Canadian citizens and citizens of other countries to be able to come into the United States," says Jamie Fiegel.
"I don't know a timeframe on this, as the two years of COVID showed us that it wasn't necessarily something that came right piggybacking off of one or the other when one country makes a decision. So I'm not holding my breath for something to be happening really soon, but hopeful that this does spearhead them to talk about it and make a decision moving forward," Fiegel said.
Canada's Minister of Health warns that those restrictions could come back in place if needed, by Fiegel doesn't see that happening, "There was a lot of discussion, there was a lot of analysis. There was significant collaboration with other groups on making this decision and the Canadian government did not do it hastily. So I think to retract it and put it back into motion again, after relinquishing it at this time, would be unlikely, but not impossible."