Sputnik V and other vaccines: can quarantine hotel be avoided?
Soon, self-isolation and hotel quarantine will be lifted for those who have been vaccinated. But what about those who were not vaccinated in Canada?
Last week, it was revealed that as of July 1, fully vaccinated Canadian citizens and residents will not be required to stay for a 3-day hotel quarantine and then comply with a 14-day self-exclusion. But as it turns out, not everyone who is vaccinated is covered by these long-awaited indulgences.
Cathy Gibson, a 36-year-old teacher from Calgary, Alberta, was offered the Chinese vaccine Sinopharm when she and her husband lived in Abu Dhabi, UAE. The couple didn't hesitate to agree, as Sinopharm was the only vaccine available in the Emirates.
"We had the opportunity, so we just got vaccinated," Katie recalls. — A vaccine is a vaccine."
After two years abroad, the family of four wants to return home this summer. The declining number of cases of infection in Canada gave hope that it would soon be possible.
But when the federal government announced it was lifting quarantine hotels and a two-week self-exclusion for vaccinated Canadians, Katie learned that she might not be subject to the rules because Canada only recognizes vaccines approved by its Ministry of Health: Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna, AstraZeneca-Oxford and Janssen.
Although Sinopharm is approved by the World Health Organization (WHO), it is not on the Canadian list. Neither is Sputnik V, which is used in Russia, Mexico, India, and several countries in South America, and is awaiting approval from WHO.
"I think it's ridiculous because there are so many people in the world who have been vaccinated with a different vaccine," Katie says. — The WHO recognizes them, I don't see why Canada can't."
Lynn Tognet-Loge, a nurse from Canada, who has been living in Moscow for 10 years and has been vaccinated with Sputnik V there, was in the same situation. Lynn said she wanted to go to her native Winnipeg, Manitoba in the summer, but changed her mind because she could not go for a whole month, which is how long it would take her to spend two weeks in quarantine and two weeks on vacation.
"I was frustrated, they don't think about the fact that other vaccines can be as effective as the ones the Department of Health has approved," Lynn says.
Both Lynn and Cathy believe that the Canadian government should review the rules of entry for vaccinated travellers. Currently, all travellers must take a PCR test upon arrival in Canada and wait up to 3 days for the results at a quarantine hotel before going to self-isolation.
The Ministry of Health declined to give reasons why vaccination with other drugs is not recognized in Canada. Representatives limited themselves to commenting that more information will be available when the changes take effect in July.
In May, a federal advisory panel of COVID-19 experts recommended that the government cancel quarantine hotels altogether and instead proposed a series of measures for three categories of travelers: the unvaccinated, the once-vaccinated and the fully vaccinated.
