Fight against Corona
Canada is tightening the vaccination screws
About the vaccination this way: Canada is in the top group worldwide when it comes to its vaccination quota. Photo: Graham Hughes / The Canadian Press / ZUMA / dpa
© dpa-infocom GmbH
Canada has one of the most successful vaccination campaigns in the world. In the end it stalled, but the government is now taking far-reaching measures against objectors.
The first 80 percent of the vaccinations were still comparatively easy, says Christian Dubé. “The hard part really is getting the last 20 percent.”
Dubé is the Minister of Health in Quebec, one of Canada’s showcase provinces in the fight against Covid-19. After its vaccination campaign, which has so far been successful, Canada now needs to get creative to get the pandemic behind it, he explains. And in fact, a few days after the interview, the government in Ottawa is taking measures that previously seemed impossible in Germany.
Specifically, this means that anyone who wants to travel to Canada in the future will usually soon have a problem without immunization. “You must be fully vaccinated by the end of November if you are twelve years or older and want to fly or take the train,” said Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, ordering guidelines against vaccinators who are among the strictest in the world. “This is no time for half measures.”
In fact, Canada is in the top group worldwide in terms of its vaccination quota – behind comparatively tiny countries such as the United Arab Emirates, Portugal, Malta, Singapore and Qatar. In the second largest country in the world – with an area 28 times the size of Germany – almost three out of four people now have complete protection. For people over twelve it is even 85 percent. Significantly more than in the Federal Republic.
And Ottawa is going even further to raise the quotas: in the future, public service employees, including police officers, as well as employees in the transport sector must have received a vaccine. At least civil servants will otherwise be released from work from mid-November and will no longer be paid. Proof of vaccination in bars and restaurants is already mandatory in most regions of the country.
Canada’s liberal government is taking action in the face of the delta variant that continues to spread, where other countries are still struggling. This is also due to the fact that Trudeau – whose minority government was recently confirmed with a mediocre result in new elections – can count on broad support from the population when it comes to vaccinations. An August poll showed that a large majority of Canadians fully or partially support mandatory vaccination.
While in neighboring USA attempts are being made with mixed success to drive up the meager quota, Canadians are queuing up in the convention center of the megacity of Montreal – even on a Monday morning. Most of the visitors here are between 20 and 30 years old and are getting their second dose today.
“A lot of students from abroad also come here. We give vaccines to everyone, not just Canadians, ”says the local manager. In September, 500 people were being vaccinated here every day. Not as many as there used to be, but the rush is still significantly greater than at many stations across the border.
Health Minister Christian Dubé believes that a special sense of community in diverse Canada and in the province of Quebec will contribute to the success. “We have been through tremendous difficulties for centuries, given our snow and many other things. In difficult times, Quebecers stick together. “