Canadians have reached the ‘magic number’ vaccination rate set out by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and other federal government officials as the benchmark for a return to ‘normal life’ and travel.
According to CTV News’ coronavirus vaccination tracker, by Tuesday morning, the country went over the tipping point of 80 per cent of Canadians over 12 achieving full vaccination status.
Nearly 87 per cent of Canadians have received at least one dose.
That puts Canada right on track to meet Ottawa’s hope and expectation that the country would reach an 80 per cent vaccination rate by the end of SEP.
80 per cent has long been touted as the benchmark of vaccination penetration that would trigger additional easing of restrictions in everyday life - and travel.
In JUL, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau cited Chief Public Health Officer Dr. Theresa Tam’s advice that Canada should be aiming to get 80 per cent of the eligible population vaccinated “if we’re going to be safe.”
He added, “I look forward to seeing all Canadians vaccinated as quickly as possible, so we can get back to living as normal.”
Ottawa eased travel restrictions for fully vaccinated arrivals into Canada beginning 09AUG, permitting Americans to enter the country without quarantining and some testing if they’d had full doses of a Health Canada-recognized COVID-19 vaccine. This was followed by fully vaccinated international travellers on 07SEP.
But Canadians themselves - whether fully vaccinated or not - have remained under government advice to avoid non-essential travel. And to avoid cruise travel altogether.
That government guidance has slowed the pace of travel recovery, as some Canadians hesitate to travel against government advice. In addition, official guidance also impacts Canadians’ ability to get travel insurance with COVID coverage - for cruising, for example.
As of press time for Open Jaw Wednesday, there has been no official government acknowledgment of Canada reaching the 80 per cent vaccination milestone - nor of any updated guidance that frees Canadians to resume travel - yet.
Rather than issuing guidance about what Canadians will be able to do once the 80 per cent threshold has been exceeded, federal health officials this month have simply continued urging all Canadians to get vaccinated as soon as possible, with Dr. Tam saying to media that, despite vaccination rate achievements, “millions of people across Canada remain unvaccinated.”
It leaves the travel industry to wonder if the goalposts are being quietly moved for the resumption of travel - and if there’s any level of vaccination that will satisfy authorities to green light Canadians to embrace international travel again while the pandemic remains.
