It's news that's getting many excited: Canada's chief public health officer, Dr. Tam, said on Friday that the Canadian government was reassessing the relevance of imposing a border test Canadian for vaccinated travelers, especially for short trips.
"Just to reassure everyone ... we're looking at this very carefully," she said in a briefing on Friday as the Canada Border Services Agency reviewed testing for vaccinated travelers entering the country, as the US land border reopens to fully vaccinated Canadians Monday November 8.
According to The Canadian Press, however, no changes were to be made before then.
Imposed since January 2021, the test requirement has caused a lot of controversy since its implementation. It has aroused the discontent of many advocacy groups of travelers and travel agents, including the Canadian Association of Travel Agencies and the Association of Travel Agents of Quebec (AAVQ).
Both have called on the federal government to replace the pre-departure test with a screening test on arrival, in order to revive the travel industry and save thousands of jobs in Canada.
The PCR test, which costs between $ 150 and $ 300, places a burden on travel agents and their destination customers, who must not only find a clinic and pay for the test, but also risk ending up. with a false positive result and thus must be placed in quarantine while waiting to receive a negative result.
"During this wait of several days, several travel insurance policies do not cover the living expenses at destination if the travelers do not show any symptoms, since they do not suffer from a medical condition but rather an administrative one," lamented the AAVQ in a press release. "This situation creates discomfort for travelers since there is a risk of having to pay a few thousand dollars for accommodation while awaiting their new negative test."
"Many travelers are uncomfortable leaving with this financial risk, some canceling their reservations."
There is no word on when a decision will be made.
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