Beginning July 5, Canada will be lifting most international travel restrictions.
Beginning July 5, Canada will be lifting most international travel restrictions for fully vaccinated Canadians, permanent residents, and some foreign citizens, allowing individuals eligible to travel with more ease.
If completely vaccinated against COVID-19, EDT travelers who are currently eligible to enter Canada under the present restrictions will soon be able to do so without having to self-isolate for 14 days, undergoing a COVID test on day eight, or staying in a quarantine hotel upon arrival.
This change will not apply to fully vaccinated non-citizens who are looking to visit for non-essential reasons, and for any Canadian traveler who is not fully vaccinated, the existing suite of travel restrictions will remain in effect.
After more than a year of firm travel restrictions to Canada due to the Coronavirus, the Canadian government has finally started to mention a plan to ease these restrictions in the weeks to come.
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau stated last month to the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation that he would prefer to wait until 75 percent of the country has been vaccinated before fully reopening the border, but his administration has been pressed to come up with a plan to reopen borders sooner.
Despite talk of an impending shift, Trudeau repeated at a news conference earlier this month that border restrictions will be based on the number of Canadian citizens who have received both doses of the vaccine or are deemed fully vaccinated.
As of June 4th, 56.8% of the Canadian population had received at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine and 5.7% had been fully vaccinated, according to the Canadian government’s website.
Ottawa’s government stated that fully vaccinated visitors who are presently permitted to enter Canada would soon be able to bypass the federal 14-day quarantine rule, including the mandatory hotel stay. Instead, they will be required to produce confirmation of a negative pre-departure COVID-19 test, take another test upon arrival, and self-isolate until that test returns negative.
Keep in mind – only travelers who received a vaccine approved by Health Canada (Pfizer, Moderna, AstraZeneca, and Johnson & Johnson) will be allowed to bypass the 14-day quarantine. The government said it will assess and consider approving other COVID-19 vaccines at a later date.