During a recent press event in Ottowa, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said that border openings and vaccine passports are both being discussed by government officials.
“Scientists and other experts are currently closely watching the impact of full vaccination on the ability of the virus to spread. Once the time is right, we will open up the borders again properly, perhaps with necessary vaccination certificates,” Trudeau said in response to reporters’ questions regarding the European Union’s decision to allow fully vaccinated people to visit, starting this summer.
“As was the case pre-pandemic, certificates of vaccination are a part of international travel to certain regions and are naturally to be expected when it comes to this pandemic and the coronavirus,” Trudeau continued, as per Global News Canada.
However he also cautioned that this would be a slow process, reminding Canadians, “But … we’re not yet at this point. We need to ensure that when the time comes we do things right to continue to ensure that Canadians are safe.”
As per Business Vancouver, a follow-up question was regarding Canada’s COVID vaccine rollout. “How we actually roll that out in alignment with partners and our allies around the world is something that we’re working on right now to co-ordinate. I can assure you that our decisions will be based on science, and the fact that those decisions are ongoing and those discussions are ongoing right now means that we will be aligned with our partners around the world,” the Prime Minister said.
As a follow-up to the follow-up question, a reporter asked if Trudeau meant that some sort of vaccine certificate or passport was coming. The Prime Minister replied, “We will have more to announce when we have to announce. Right now we’re focused on getting through this pandemic and being prepared to come roaring back once we’re through it.”
Canada is in the middle of its third wave of COVID cases. In comparison to the U.S. and the U.K., it is currently lagging in getting its citizens vaccinated. To date, only about 2.7% of their population is fully vaccinated.
Obviously, Canada is still nowhere near ready to reopen its borders. With that, not surprisingly, Trudeau would not give any time frame for any changes.
All that being said, his words are probably about as much of baby steps as baby steps can be. But still, “We’re looking at what needs to happen for the border to reopen” is still a tiny bit better than, essentially, “The border isn’t going to open any time soon.”
Feature Photo: Pixabay
Want to comment on this post? Great! Read this first to help ensure it gets approved.
#stayhealthy #staysafe #washyourhands #wearamask #getyourCOVIDvaccine
Like this post? Please share it! We have plenty more just like it and would love it if you decided to hang around and get emailed notifications of when we post. Or maybe you’d like to join our Facebook group – we have 20,000+ members and we talk and ask questions about travel (including Disney parks), creative ways to earn frequent flyer miles and hotel points, how to save money on or for your trips, get access to travel articles you may not see otherwise, etc. Whether you’ve read our posts before or this is the first time you’re stopping by, we’re really glad you’re here and hope you come back to visit again!
This post first appeared on Your Mileage May Vary
2 comments
Biden should give Justin a secret deadline. Open up by Halloween (6 months for now) or Canada will be invaded or bombed. He could then admit 10 or 12 provinces so that the Democrats would get an additional 20 or so Senators.
Either that or bribeI’ll Justin with vaccine.