Some questioning Canada’s quarantine rules as Europe mulls easing measures

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WatchA Lake Cowichan man is among those questioning Canada's quarantine rules as Europe mulls easing measures. Ben Nesbit has more.
Some questioning Canada's quarantine rules as Europe mulls easing measures

Some fully vaccinated Canadians are questioning why they still need to quarantine upon arrival back to Canada.

Lake Cowichan resident Orton Ker and his wife spent the past six months in Mexico, and before coming back home they were each given two doses of the Pfizer vaccine and have tested negative multiple times.

However, under current Canadian law, the couple must undergo a 14-day quarantine when they return home to Canada.

Ker made it clear that while he has had no issues with COVID-19 restrictions throughout the pandemic, he feels quarantining while fully vaccinated may be a bit much.

“When is enough, enough?” he said, adding. “If you’ve had your vaccines both of them and you’ve been tested three times, why this quarantine thing?”

It appears the European Union may agree after officials are considering measures that would allow fully vaccinated visitors and those from so-called “safe countries” into the 27-nation bloc.

“This will help progressively resume international travel inbound travel where it’s possible to do so safely, while at the same time ensuring quick action to counter the spread of foreign variants,” said Christian Wigand of the European Union.

The EU considers countries safe if there have been no more than 25 new coronavirus cases per 100,000 people in the previous 14 days and tourists from outside could only arrive if they’ve been fully vaccinated with approved vaccines.

However, here in Canada, it doesn’t appear that restrictions will be eased to the same extent, despite the U.S.’s call to re-open the Canada-U.S. land border.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has said in recent days that 75 per cent of Canadians would need to be vaccinated for restrictions to ease.

So far, only 36 per cent of Canadians have received one dose while less than four per cent have been fully vaccinated.

In B.C., both the provincial and federal governments’ refusal to budge on restrictions thus far could be leading the tourism industry into a dark summer.

“It’s looking extremely dire for the summer unless we start to see a reopening plan soon,” said Tourism B.C. CEO, Paul Nursey.

bnesbit@cheknews.ca

Ben Nesbit

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