Some Canadian travellers want to know why those entering from the U.S. face less-stringent rules

Monitoring Desk

TORONTO: Some Canadian travellers required to spend days in isolation waiting for COVID-19 test results after returning home from abroad want to know why Ottawa allows people arriving from the U.S. to skip quarantine.

Kevin McNally of Gatineau, Que., flew from Panama to Montreal on Jan. 7. He was tested on arrival and waited six days at home in quarantine before he received his negative test result. He said it was hard to endure the long wait, knowing tested travellers who arrive in Canada after being in the U.S. are exempt from the quarantine requirement.

“I felt like a prisoner in my own country and yet an American can come over here and not quarantine,” said McNally, who works as a travel consultant. “It makes no sense.”

As part of its beefed-up arrival-testing program, Ottawa is doling out PCR tests daily to thousands of randomly selected, fully vaccinated international travellers upon arrival. According to rules posted on the government’s website, randomly tested travellers who have been in a country outside the U.S. within the past 14 days must quarantine while waiting for their test results. Those who test negative can leave isolation.

But tested travellers, including Canadians, who haven’t been anywhere outside Canada except the U.S. within the past 14 days can skip quarantine while awaiting their results — even though cases of the highly contagious Omicron variant are surging in the U.S.

All unvaccinated travellers entering from any country are tested upon arrival and must quarantine for 14 days.

CBC News asked the Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC) why vaccinated travellers from the U.S. who are tested get to skip quarantine. In an email sent Monday, spokesperson Tammy Jarbeau didn’t respond to the question and instead repeated the quarantine rules from the government’s website.

Earlier this month, PHAC told CBC News that its travel rules are rooted in science. “Border measures are based on available data, scientific evidence and monitoring of the epidemiological situation both in Canada and internationally,” said spokesperson André Gagnon in an email on Jan. 7.

Courtesy: (CBC)