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FILE PHOTO: Healthcare workers prepare to test passengers before they arrive at Toronto's Pearson airport after mandatory coronavirus disease (COVID-19) testing took effect for international arrivals in Mississauga, Ontario, Canada February 15, 2021. REUTERS/Carlos Osorio - 

Canada has scrapped an official advisory urging its citizens to shun non-essential foreign travel, given the successful campaign to inoculate people against COVID-19, the country's top medical officer said on Friday (Oct 22).

The warning was issued in March 2020, when the COVID-19 pandemic erupted.

Ottawa removed the advice to avoid unnecessary travel late on Thursday and reverted to its usual practice of issuing notices for individual countries.

The Canadian government, however, is still telling people to avoid cruise ship travel outside of the country.

"The beginnings of the transition away from the more blanket approach really recognises vaccines are very effective at preventing severe outcome," Chief Medical Officer Theresa Tam told a briefing.

"Now is not the time to just freely go wherever," she added, citing high cases of coronavirus in some nations.

According to official data, just under 82 per cent of eligible Canadians had been fully vaccinated against COVID-19 by Oct 8.

Tam said the latest surveillance data showed "a continued decline in disease activity nationally and in most jurisdictions."//CNA