Canada’s travel and tourism industry can hopefully breathe a sigh of relief as the Canadian Government today announced an easing of the border restrictions that have been in place since March 2020. Barring any changes to the current COVID-19 situation in Canada our borders will open up on August 9 for fully vaccinated U.S. citizens and on September 7 for the rest of the world.
For non-Canadian citizens travelling to Canada these new eased restrictions will be available to those who have been fully vaccinated* at least 14 days prior to entering Canada. All travellers are still required to take pre-flight COVID-19 test but will no longer have to quarantine upon arrival nor have to take another COVID-19 test once in Canada. Travellers will have to have a quarantine plan in place and must use the ArriveCAN app to provide all travel details.
* Approved vaccines are Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna, AstraZeneca/COVISHIELD, and Janssen (Johnson & Johnson)
In addition to the four airports currently open to international flights (Calgary, Montreal, Toronto, Vancouver) the following five airports will be allowed to accept international passenger flights from outside of Canada as of August 9:
- Halifax Stanfield International Airport;
- Québec City Jean Lesage International Airport;
- Ottawa Macdonald–Cartier International Airport;
- Winnipeg James Armstrong Richardson International Airport; and
- Edmonton International Airport.
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| Image via Government of Canada |
Also as of August 9th the Canadian Government will do away with the required 3 day hotel quarantine requirement. Unvaccinated travellers are still required to quarantine for 14 days along with COVID testing on Day 1 and 8.