Fully vaccinated Canadians can now enter the country without quarantining, provided they provide two negative COVID-19 tests, even though federal officials are still recommending against international travel.
Canadian citizens and permanent residents must at least 14 days out from their last required dose of an approved COVID-19 vaccine to qualify; this means 14 days after their second dose of Pfizer, Moderna or AstraZeneca or 14 days after their only dose of Johnson & Johnson, as it is a single-dose vaccine. Individuals who have only received one dose of a two-shot series, or are less than 14 days out from their final dose, will still have to quarantine.
Other vaccines, including Bharat Biotech (Covaxin, BBV152 A, B, C), Cansino (Convidecia, Ad5-nCoV), Gamalaya (Sputnik V, Gam-Covid-Vac), Sinopharm (BBIBP-CorV, Sinopharm-Wuhan), Sinovac (CoronaVac, PiCoVacc) and the Vector Institute (EpiVacCorona) are not currently accepted.
Travellers must enter their proof of vaccination into the ArriveCAN app starting today, prior to arriving at the border. Individuals entering Canada must also take a pre-arrival COVID-19 PCR test during the 72 hours prior to arriving at a land or air border into the country and then take a test upon arrival, or take one home with them and send it off to a lab.
Both tests must be negative in order to avoid the day eight test, 14-day quarantine and for air travellers, the initial three-day government hotel isolation period. However, travellers must still have a quarantine plan ready in case they do test positive.
Children under the age of 18 and adult dependants travelling with fully vaccinated travellers must still quarantine for 14 days, complete all tests – unless under the age of five – but do not have to stay at a government hotel.
The vaccinated travel exemption does not change the rules as to who is allowed into Canada; non-essential travellers who are not Canadians remain barred.
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