The federal government announced that it will end mandatory hotel quarantines and permit fully-vaccinated Canadians to enter the country more easily.
Health Minister Patty Hajdu announced the first step in the “phased” easing of the federal government’s pandemic border measures at a press conference on Wednesday, June 9th.
The easing of restrictions will apply to any Canadian citizens or permanent residents who have received two doses of a COVID-19 vaccine, but is contingent on COVID-19 case numbers remaining low.
Canada’s seven-day average of new daily COVID-19 cases has dropped below 1,800 for the first time since the fall of 2020, according to Chief Public Health Officer Dr. Theresa Tam.
Travellers must show a negative pre-departure PCR test, and upon arriving, must take a COVID-19 test and self-isolate until their most recent test result comes back negative.
The government considers fully-vaccinated individuals as those who have had their second dose for more than 14 days prior to their arrival in Canada and must have received authorized vaccines such as Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna, AstraZeneca, or the Johnson & Johnson vaccine.
As of this publication, no single-shot doses of Johnson & Johnson have been administered.
The mandatory hotel quarantine element of Canada’s COVID-19 border measures was instituted in February.
The federal government is currently discussing with the Canada Border Services Agency about rolling out this easing of restrictions.
