Fully-vaccinated Canadians will have an easier time crossing the border beginning early July.
Starting July 5th 11:59 ET, Canadians who have received a full series of COVID-19 vaccines authorized by Health Canada — Pfizer, Moderna, AstraZeneca, and Johnson & Johnson — will no longer have to quarantine after travel, take a COVID-19 test on day eight, or stay at a government authorized hotel.
The announcement was made on Monday morning, June 21st, by Canada’s Health Minister, Patty Hajdu.
Travellers will still need to meet requirements like a pre-travel and on-arrival COVID-19 test, which Hajdu said will be required to monitor COVID-19 test positivity and variants of concern.
There are no changes to border measures for travellers who are not fully-vaccinated, meaning testing and federal quarantine is required.
Travellers still must adhere to the requirements of the province or country one is travelling to.
Hadju reminded travellers that some countries’ restrictions may change at the point between arrival and departure.
Proof of vaccination will be required in order to be exempted from the quarantine measures, and travellers are being asked to either have a paper or digital copy of their vaccination documentation.
Fully vaccinated travellers must submit their proof of vaccination information and COVID-19-related information into the federal government’s ArriveCAN app before arriving.
While the ArriveCAN app verifies the validity of the vaccination documentation, the federal government also said it is requiring travellers to maintain an original copy of their vaccination documents for Canada Border Service officers.
Canada Border Services officers will be responsible for reviewing and considering each travellers’ circumstances.
Travel restrictions for foreign nationals are still in place until July 21st and until then, foreign nationals travelling for non-essential reasons will be turned away.
While some restrictions for fully-vaccinated individuals travelling have been lifted, some questions still remain, like whether fully-vaccinated parents of unvaccinated children under 12 can travel as freely.
In the same press conference, the federal government renewed the flight ban between Canada and India for 30 days to July 21st, 2021 and lifted the flight ban between Canada and Pakistan.
This is a developing story, more to come.
