Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says job No. 1 of his re-elected Liberal government is to implement a rule requiring most commercial travellers to be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 and that more details will be announced in the coming weeks. Once implemented, the vaccination rule would cover the federal civil service, travellers in federally regulated industries including airlines, trains, and cruise ships, as well as workers in those fields.

When it was announced, the federal government said the requirement for public servants could apply as early as the end of September and kick in for employees in federally regulated workplaces as well as commercial travellers “no later than the end of October.”

Details have yet to be released around how the mandate will apply to domestic air and train travellers, but the transport minister’s office says the deadline of the end of October still stands, with the government set to discuss the policy with stakeholders, bargaining agents and those in the transportation sector.

National Airlines Council of Canada President Mike McNaney says the government has yet to provide it with the operational details of its plan, which it expects to come soon in order to meet the October deadline.

“We need to have both those nuts and bolts for us to implement. We need the public to be fully aware of what those requirements are, so they too can be fully prepared.”

In the absence of providing more specifics, Trudeau reiterated Tuesday that everyone 12 and older should make sure they are fully vaccinated against COVID-19 if they are planning a trip.

“You will not be able to travel on a plane or a train in Canada if you are not fully vaccinated,” he said.

Newfoundland and labrador

As COVID-19 cases continue to climb across the country, Newfoundland and Labrador is tightening up its borders again to try to keep the highly transmissible delta variant from overwhelming the province’s health system. This includes bursting the Atlantic bubble that had allowed unvaccinated residents of the region to avoid quarantine when travelling.

Dr. Rosann Seviour, acting chief medical officer of health, said Tuesday that contact tracing and testing in the central region of the province has put a considerable strain on resources.

“This, combined with several other clusters in recent weeks, is putting significant demand on our frontline public health resources for contact tracing,” she said at a news briefing. “When Public Health capacity is overwhelmed, this is a signal that we need to strengthen our public health measures.”

Starting today (Oct. 30), partially vaccinated Canadians will no longer be free from self-isolation requirements as fully vaccinated travellers are. They will be treated the same as unvaccinated passengers and have to self-isolate for 14 days, or for less if they get a negative test result any time after seven days.

The province is also bowing out of the Atlantic bubble.

“This means that travellers from Atlantic Canada must declare their vaccination status, and isolate if partially vaccinated or unvaccinated, similar to travellers from the rest of the country,” Seviour said. “Having an Atlantic bubble was low risk in the summer when the entire region had similar and favourable epidemiology. That is changing, and we are starting to see unfavourable epidemiology across the region as the fourth wave carries on across the country.”

The change does not apply to those travelling between adjacent border communities in Quebec and Labrador.

Seviour said delta has proven to be a much different foe from the original novel coronavirus that hit in the winter of 2020. “The emerging evidence on delta tells us that one dose alone does not provide sufficient protection,” she said, explaining the change in vaccination guidelines.

Delta has also changed the level of immunity needed in the province, she said, noting that the end goal used to be 80% of the eligible populations, but is now 90.

“I believe we can get there,” she said, adding that more than 88% eligible residents have received one dose, while the main focus remains younger adults, which universally fall below the 70% fully vaccinated rate.

Prince Edward Island

As reported yesterday in Travel Industry Today, anyone travelling to Prince Edward Island will be tested for COVID-19 at points of entry to the province, regardless of their vaccination status, starting today. This includes Island residents returning home.

Provincial chief public health officer Dr. Heather Morrison is also recommending that travellers 12 and older be tested again between the fourth and eighth day after they enter the province. Unvaccinated or partially vaccinated travellers will need to isolate for eight days upon entry and then tested once again. The province’s PEI pass, which permits entry onto the Island, will now only be issued to people who can show they are at least two weeks removed from their second COVID-19 vaccine dose.

Alberta & Saskatchewan

No such worries about increased COVID restrictions in Alberta where Premier Jason Kenney is sticking to his position that there is no need for new public health measures despite soaring COVID-19 infections that have the province’s health system on the brink of collapse.

He is rejecting calls from doctors, infectious disease experts, and the Alberta Medical Association for a firebreak economic lockdown, saying it would only punish fully vaccinated people. With 318 people in intensive care, the head of emergency medicine for the Alberta Medical Association says some patients are not being put on ventilators because there aren’t enough staff.

Dr. Katharine Smart, president of the Canadian Medical Association, is urging the federal and provincial governments to take immediate action in both Alberta and Saskatchewan, the latte also setting records for hospitalizations.

Smart says it’s time for “courageous action” and politics must be put to the side to allow for collaboration between levels of government.

“We are now witnessing an unprecedented health-care crisis in Alberta and Saskatchewan – and patients and health workers are experiencing unfathomable choices and consequences,” she said on Wednesday. “Early relaxation of public health measures has left two crumbling health-care systems in their wake and the dire realities are now in full view.

“What is happening is as heartbreaking as it was preventable. We are now in a situation where it’s all hands on deck to address the state of crisis.”

For his part, Kenney did that announce that hospitals and health care facilities will soon be protected by the Critical Infrastructure Defence Act passed last year, thus providing the same legal protection as railways, highways, and pipelines by carrying punishments for trespassing, interfering with operations and construction or causing damage. Kenney says the measure is in response to protests outside hospitals earlier this month by anti-vaccination groups.

Ontario

Ontario’s science advisers say the fourth wave of COVID-19 infections has flattened in the province. The group says there’s uncertainty in its predictions because it’s too early to see the impact of in-person schooling and work resuming, However, projections show daily case counts could increase next month and into November, with more than one thousand cases if the status quo in public behaviour and policy holds, and five thousand cases daily if transmission increases significantly.