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Canadian province of Quebec to implement Covid-19 vaccine passports
It will allow those who have both doses of a Covid-19 vaccine to access non-essential services such as bars, restaurants, sporting facilities and gyms as well as cinemas and public events like concerts and festivals
The Canadian province of Quebec will start recognising Covid-19 vaccine passports or passes from September 1, which will limit the public’s access to certain facilities such as restaurants and gyms.
The measure was first announced by Quebec’s premier Francois Legault on August 5, with the rationale forwarded being that those fully vaccinated against Covid-19 should have “a somewhat normal life”.
The details of the new system were unveiled by provincial health minister Christian Dubé on Tuesday.
It will allow those who have both doses of a Covid-19 vaccine to access non-essential services such as bars, restaurants, sporting facilities and gyms as well as cinemas and public events like concerts and festivals.
“The idea is for us to only allow people with the passport to access these services as of September 1, instead of closing them,” said Dube, according to The Montreal Gazette.
The vaccine passports or passes will be available on a mobile app that will be launched before September 1, while those without smartphones will be allowed to carry hard copies of proof of vaccination.
Two pilot projects are being launched, one at a gym and another one at a sports bar, to test the system before it goes live for the provincial population.
“Taking into account the increase in [Covid-19] cases, the fall coming up with back to school and back to work, and the expected prevalence of the Delta variant, the conditions are there to deploy the vaccination passport,” Dubé said, according to the news outlet CBC News.
According to Canada’s chief public health officer Theresa Tam, at the “national level, the Delta variant currently accounts for the majority of recently reported VOC (variants of concern) cases”.
In a statement, Tam said the latest national seven-day moving average of 1,294 new cases reported daily from August 3 to August 9 was an increase of 58% the previous week.
“With early signs of a Delta-driven wave beginning and the fall approaching, efforts to increase the proportion of fully vaccinated Canadians and reinforce individual precautions per local public health advice are crucial to reducing virus spread and lowering the risk of a resurgence that could lead to healthcare capacity being exceeded this coming fall and winter,” she added.
