Our briefing for Thursday July 22, 2021:

• In the United States, the government announced that the land border will remain closed to non-essential travel until August 21^st, shortly after Canada announced it would open its border to fully vaccinated American travellers on August 9^th. The existing U.S. border restrictions have been in place since March 2020 and were set to expire on Wednesday. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said it’s not up to Canadians to “dictate” how the United States reopens its border. “I think every country should and does set its own border policies. We have been working with the United States to keep them informed to make sure that as much as possible our choices are aligned, but you will have seen, everyone will have seen that our countries took different approaches certainly during the beginning of the pandemic,” he said.

• In Canada, the demand for vaccines has slowed, according to statistics provided by Our World in Data. Less than one per cent of Canadians were vaccinated per day over the last week, a decrease from the all-time high of 1.44 per day at the end of June. The drop is to be expected considering almost 80% of the population has now had at least one dose of vaccine. A new poll by Leger and the Association for Canadian Studies suggests that the majority of Canadians believe proof of vaccination should be required for all travellers. Travellers should be required to show a “vaccine passport” according to 58% of survey respondents, while about 30% say the document is not necessary.

• The world is watching the United Kingdom, as they continue to live without Covid-19 restrictions while cases numbers rise. The daily numbers have been close to 50,000, higher than those reported in Brazil, India or South Africa. Nadhim Zahawi, the vaccine deployment minister, announced the rollout of the National Health Service (NHS) Covid-19 pass, which may soon be required at events where there are large numbers of people. “For proprietors of venues and events where large numbers are likely to gather and likely to mix with people from outside their households for prolonged periods, deploying the pass is the right thing to do,” Zahawi said. “The pass has an important role to play in slowing the spread of the virus and so we reserve the right to mandate its use in the future.”

• France rolled out their Covid-19 health pass on Wednesday as new infections soared. People wanting to visit cultural venues like museums or cinemas now have to present the pass in order to do so. To get the pass, French citizens must show proof that they are fully vaccinated, have tested negative for the coronavirus or recovered from Covid-19. In August, the pass will be extended to include restaurants and shopping centres. On Tuesday France reported over 18,000 new infections in a 24 hour period. Authorities have warned that the rise in cases means France has officially entered a fourth wave of infections. 

• In Germany, Chancellor Angela Merkel is urging citizens to get vaccinated as the country anticipates another rise in coronavirus case numbers. Although Germany’s infection rate remains very low compared to most European countries, Merkel says the numbers are rising with “worrying momentum.” Slightly over 60% of the German population has received a first dose of vaccine, while about 48% are fully vaccinated.  While she encouraged Germans to stick to mask wearing and social distancing rules, Merkel said vaccination is the only way out of the pandemic. “We all want our normality back,” she told reporters. “But we won’t get this normality back alone, only as a community. And for this we need significantly more vaccine protection.”

• In Japan, Tokyo has hit a six-month high for new Covid-19 cases, just before the Olympic opening ceremony. There were 1,832 new cases reported on Wednesday, the highest number reported since January. Experts have warned that infections will likely worsen in the coming weeks, and noted that cases are rising among younger, unvaccinated people. The African country of Guinea pulled out of this year’s Olympics, citing concerns about Covid-19 and the need to protect the health and safety of their athletes.

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