CDC urges Americans to avoid travelling to Canada: ‘Make sure you are fully vaccinated’

The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) is advising Americans to avoid travel to Canada as the country sees its latest COVID-19 wave fuelled by the highly transmissible Omicron variant.

In its COVID-19 four-level system, the CDC has categorized Canada as a Level 4: Very High. It starts at the level categorized as “Unknown.”

When destinations are at this level, Americans are advised to avoid travel to that country.

The CDC says because of the current situation in Canada, “even fully vaccinated travelers may be at risk for getting and spreading COVID-19 variants.”

If Americans need to travel north of the border, the CDC is telling them to make sure they are fully vaccinated first, to wear a mask, and to stay six feet apart from other people.

“Do not travel internationally until you are fully vaccinated,” the CDC writes. “Getting vaccinated is still the best way to protect yourself from severe disease, slow the spread of COVID-19, and reduce the number of new variants.”

The seven-day moving average in the U.S. is nearly 700,000 new cases a day. The number of Americans in the hospital with COVID-19 is at about 110,000, just short of the peak of 124,000 last January.

In Canada, there are more than 422,000 active cases, according to recent public health data. Health officials are warning case reporting may not be accurate due to testing capacity limits in some areas.

This comes as many hospitals are not only swamped with cases but severely shorthanded because of so many employees out with COVID-19. Last month, the CDC said that health care workers who have no symptoms can return to work after seven days with a negative test, but that the isolation time can be cut further if there are staffing shortages.

On the vaccine front, more than 74 per cent of Americans have at least one dose. More than 82 per cent of the Canadian population has had at least one shot.

With files from The Associated Press