While Canada has been accepting American citizens across the land border for nearly a month now, and the Clipper made its grand return to Victoria from Seattle this past weekend, the US will not be returning the favour for at least another month.
On Monday, The White House overhauled some of its international travel restrictions, like loosening restrictions for fully-vaccinated foreign travellers flying into their country for November, but leaving in place a now 19-month ban on travel across the Canada-US. land border.
Until at least October 21st, Canadians looking to travel recreationally across the land borders will be stopped and told to head back home.
The new policy, announced on Monday, will no longer limit travelers from specific countries like the UK, China and India.
The US also released other travel restrictions for their own citizens on Monday that echo similar to Canada’s guidelines, this includes any unvaccinated Americans needing to be tested one day before traveling to or leaving the US and fully vaccinated passengers not needing to complete a quarantine upon arrival or departure.
For some, this is welcome news. The US and Canada are currently dealing with a vicious fourth wave, mostly affecting the unvaccinated.
But for others, it is just another devastating blow to a sense of normalcy for what is almost two years of hard work and restrictions meant to aid the fight against COVID-19.
In the past week, from September 13th to 19th, of the 4,367 people who tested positive for COVID-19 in BC, 68.3 per cent were unvaccinated while 7.8 per cent were partially vaccinated.
