OTTAWA, ON – Fully-vaccinated Canadians will be allowed to travel abroad with reduced health measures when coming back home beginning in early July.
The federal government is finally relaxing some pandemic restrictions at the border.
Public Safety Minister, Bill Blair said on Monday the changes coming into effect on July 5th only apply right now to Canadians and permanent residents who have two doses of an approved COVID-19 vaccine.
He says it is your responsibility to plan ahead and to make sure you have all the right documents.
“Fully-vaccinated travellers will no longer have to quarantine or complete the eight day test,” said Blair. “To benefit from these reduced public health obligations, fully-vaccinated travellers must submit their vaccination information using the arriveCAN app before arriving at the Canadian border. There are no changes to our current border measures for those who are not fully-vaccinated.”
For these new measures to apply to them, fully-vaccinated Canadian travellers must still meet all other mandatory requirements, including pre and on-arrival testing.
Fully-vaccinated Canadians coming to Canada can skip the government-required quarantine in a designated hotel as of July 5th as well. This exemption will also apply to non-vaccinated children under 18 or dependent adults travelling with vaccinated people.
Also, as of right now, anyone approved for permanent residency may travel to Canada.
Under the previous rules, those who held a valid confirmation of permanent residency issued after March 18, 2020 could only come to Canada if they met another exemption or were coming from the U.S. to settle permanently in Canada.
As for international travellers wanting to visit Canada, they will still be turned away, at least for a couple more weeks. Blair says travel to Canada remains off limits to foreign nationals, including U.S. citizens until at least July 21st
“A phased approached will allow us to ease border measures with a decreasing risk (of transmitting COVID-19) and will take in vaccination thresholds and modelling forecasts as well as public health criteria,” stated Blair on Monday.