Changes to Canada’s COVID-19 border rules remain a work in progress for children, top doctor says - Toronto Star

OTTAWA — How new COVID-19 measures at the Canadian border will apply to children who are not old enough to be vaccinated remains in a work in progress, chief public health officer Dr. Theresa Tam said Friday.

Earlier this week, the federal government announced mandatory quarantines could end as soon as July for fully vaccinated people who are eligible to enter Canada, if case counts and other COVID-19 health metrics continue on a positive trend and the pace of vaccinations increases.

But COVID-19 vaccines are currently approved in Canada only for people over the age of 12, and when younger children will be eligible remains unclear.

But while it’s likely there will be some different rules for vaccinated and unvaccinated members of the same families as they arrive in Canada, “there is no intention to separate children from their parents, of course,” Tam told a briefing in Ottawa on Friday.

Right now, those arriving in Canada must take a COVID-19 test before their departure and one upon arrival in Canada, and then quarantine for 14 days, and take another test towards the end of that period.

If they’re arriving by air, the first three days of that quarantine must be spent in a government-approved hotel.

The new approach under consideration would require a test before departing for Canada and another upon arrival, then a quarantine only until receiving a negative result from the second test.

The new rules would only apply for those who have had two doses of a COVID-19 vaccine that’s approved for use in Canada.

Tam said despite that, unvaccinated minors travelling with fully vaccinated adults will be given some wiggle room.

“I think if you have minors within a group of families, then I think the current thinking is they’re exempt from the government-authorized accommodations,” she said.

But what will happen after that appears to be a bit of a sticking point. The new approach will still require a quarantine and a followup test for unvaccinated travellers, she said.

Tam said discussions are ongoing about how that would work in the case of children.

“We’ll have obviously have to answer those detailed questions in the days to come,” she said.

Currently, children under the age of four are already exempt from testing requirements prior to and upon arrival in Canada.

Last month, the federal government’s expert panel on COVID-19 testing and screening made a series of recommendations on implementing changes to border regulations as case counts decrease and vaccine uptake increases.

Its guidance for unvaccinated travellers includes testing before and upon arrival, and then a seven-day quarantine, with a test on day seven. If that test is negative, people could leave quarantine.

The only vaccine authorized in Canada for those between the ages of 12 and 18 is Pfizer-BioNTech, which got the green light from Health Canada this spring. Moderna requested the same authorization for its vaccine from Canadian regulators this week.

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But vaccine trials on children under 12 have only been underway a few months.

Pfizer said earlier this week that it’s hoping to see results that would allow U.S. regulators to approve the vaccine for children between the ages of two and 12 by the end of the year.

Stephanie Levitz is an Ottawa-based reporter covering federal politics for the Star. Follow her on Twitter: @StephanieLevitz

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Changes to Canada’s COVID-19 border rules remain a work in progress for children, top doctor says - Toronto Star
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