On March 17th, Transport Minister Omar Alghabra tweeted, “Starting Apr, 1, Canada will no longer require fully-vaccinated travellers to provide a COVID-19 test to enter the country!” This change has come into place after travel industry advocates lobbied again testing requirement because the price of the tests can deter travellers.
You must have received the last dose of the vaccine at least 14 days before coming to Canada. A booster shot is not required at this time. Although pre-arrival testing is no longer required, it is possible for travellers to be randomly selected for Covid testing upon arrival.
To be considered fully vaccinated the traveler must have the full recommended dose of an approved vaccine. There are 8 approved vaccines in Canada, these are:
- Pfizer-BioNTech Comirnaty;
- Moderna Spikevax;
- AstraZeneca Vaxzevria/Covishield;
- Janssen/Johnson & Johnson;
- Bharat Biotech Covaxin;
- Sinopharm BIBP;
- Sinovac/CoronaVac/PiCoVacc, or;
- Novavax/Nuvaxovid/Covovax.
Proof of vaccination has to be uploaded to the ArriveCAN app before a traveller’s arrival in Canada and failure to do so could lead to Covid testing and a 14-day quarantine regardless of vaccination status.
According to CIC News, “Foreign unvaccinated travellers can only come to Canada in certain circumstances listed on the government’s website, such as Ukrainian citizens, temporary foreign workers coming to work in farming or food processing, and people who routinely travel across the border for work, among others. Unvaccinated or partially-vaccinated travellers will still need to be tested on arrival quarantine for 14 days. They will also need to do a test on day eight of their quarantine.”
Health Minister Jean-Yves Duclos indicated that Canada’s travel restrictions could be relaxed further in the upcoming months. He said, “As vaccination levels and healthcare system capacity improve, we will continue to consider further easing of measures at the borders-and when to adjust those measures-to keep the people in Canada safe… Thanks to all that Canadians have done to protect one another, we can now take the next step forward and remove testing requirements for fully-vaccinated travellers entering Canada. The economy, workers and tourism business owners will benefit from this next step in opening Canada up once again to the world.”
Sources
Singer, C. R. (2022, March 17). Canada Drops COVID-19 Test For Fully-Vaccinated Travellers As Of April 1. Retrieved from Immigration.ca: https://www.immigration.ca/canada-drops-covid-19-test-for-fully-vaccinated-travellers-as-of-april-1
Thevenot, S. (2022, March 17). Canada to end pre-arrival COVID-19 test for incoming travellers. Retrieved from CIC News: https://www.cicnews.com/2022/03/canada-to-end-pre-arrival-covid-19-test-for-incoming-travellers-0323384.html#gs.v20gqd