After more than two years, Canada’s COVID-19 border rules are coming to an end, the federal government announced Monday. The Liberal government officially announced the changes after Global News and other media reported last week that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau signed off on them.
As of Oct. 1 all travellers, regardless of citizenship, will no longer have to submit public health information through ArriveCAN, provide proof of vaccination, undergo testing, quarantine or isolate, and monitor and report if they develop signs or symptoms of COVID-19 upon arriving in Canada. Read more: Canada to drop COVID-19 vaccine mandate at border, make ArriveCAN optional: source Furthermore, travellers will no longer be required to undergo health checks for travel on air and rail, or wear masks on planes and trains. “The results of border tests carried about at the Public Health Agency (of Canada) over the past months have indicated that importations of COVID cases and its variant no longer influence in a significant way the evolution of the pandemic in Canada,” Health Minister Jean-Yves Duclos told reporters in French at a news conference in Ottawa. “The higher level of cases of hospitalizations in Canada are largely explained by the domestic transmission of the virus and the rate of vaccination today.” The decision to let the current measures expire on Sept.
30 as planned was made last Thursday, a senior government source told Global News last week. At that time, the federal government was still deciding whether to maintain the requirement for passengers to wear face masks on trains and airplanes, the source told Global News.