Canada scrapping COVID-19 vaccine mandate for travellers. Is it too early?

Starting June 20, domestic and outbound international travellers, by flight or rail, will no longer be required to be fully vaccinated against COVID-19.

The lifting of COVID-19 vaccine mandates for travellers in Canada has come at the right time as cases are declining, experts say, but they stressed the need to continue masking on trains and planes to prevent future waves.

The federal government announced Tuesday an end to COVID-19 vaccine requirements for domestic and outbound international travellers, allowing unvaccinated Canadians to board trains and planes. The mandate, which had been in place since October 2021, will be lifted on June 20.

“I think it’s reasonable to do it at this point,” said Dr. Gerald Evans, an infectious disease physician at Queen’s University in Kingston, Ont.

This is because the number of COVID-19 cases being imported into the country are low at this point of the pandemic, he said.

“Vaccine mandates … don’t really have a big role to play right now,” Evans said, adding that maintaining high vaccination rates in the country is most important in controlling those COVID-19 cases numbers.

Omar Khan, a professor of biomedical engineering and immunology at the University of Toronto, said while the new policy is in line with current COVID-19 trends in the country, there is also a risk attached to it.

“We can expect potentially some small jumps in case numbers, but hopefully it’s all manageable,” he told Global News.

The latest announcement comes amid growing calls from the travel industry to scrap COVID-19 restrictions, including vaccine mandates, as airports across the country continue to experience long lines and delays.