Canada looking to ease restrictions in stages from July, minister says

OTTAWA - Canadian Health Minister Patty Hajdu announced on Wednesday that Canada is looking to ease some COVID-19 restrictions in stages, starting in early July.

She said fully-vaccinated Canadians and permanent residents crossing the border into Canada will no longer be required to stay at a hotel for part of their quarantine period. But they will have to take a COVID-19 test on arrival and have an isolation plan until their test comes back negative.

The announcement comes after calls to end mandatory hotel quarantines and permit fully vaccinated Canadians to move around more freely.

However, seeing these changes become a reality will depend on whether there are any concerning fluctuations in new case counts and vaccination rates, as well as pending consultations with provinces and territories.

"These metrics are very important factors as we move towards implementing the changes on the border that we hope to have in place in early July," said Hajdu. "If we can keep our communities safe and free of COVID, then we will not have to return to measures that are so difficult for everyone."

"We'll be watching carefully here in Canada and around the world as cases change and as vaccination rates rise," the minister added.

All indicators of COVID-19 disease activity and severity continue to decline in Canada.

The country's seven-day averages for case counts have fallen below 1,800 cases reported daily for the first time since the fall of 2020, said Theresa Tam, Canada's chief public health officer, in a statement on Wednesday.

Tam said the latest seven-day average for the number of people with COVID-19 being treated in hospitals each day has dropped more than 55 percent since the peak to under 2,000 daily.

Of these, on average, less than 850 were being treated in intensive care units, which is 40 percent fewer than the peak number, and average daily deaths are also down to almost 40 percent to 32 deaths being reported daily, she added.

As of Wednesday afternoon, Canada reported a cumulative total of 1,396,030 COVID-19 cases, including 25,832 fatalities, according to CTV.