Canadian Border Changes Effective Today
About a month ago, the Canadian government opened its borders, slightly, for U.S. residents. Though not fully open, travel restrictions were eased.
Effective today, September 7, 2021, the exemption list was expanded to “all other foreign nationals who qualify for the fully vaccinated traveller exemption”. Basically, all international travellers who qualify as fully vaccinated are exempted from: quarantine and Day-8 testing requirement.
We already provided much of the information on our post last month, but we did want to supplement that post with some additional information today.
Accepted COVID-19 vaccines in Canada
There has been some controversy surrounding what are accepted vaccines in Canada to qualify for the quarantine exemption. These are the list of approved vaccines:
- Pfizer-BioNTech (Comirnaty, tozinameran, BNT162b2)
- Moderna (mRNA-1273)
- AstraZeneca/COVISHIELD (ChAdOx1-S, Vaxzevria, AZD1222)
- Janssen/Johnson & Johnson (Ad26.COV2.S)
There is also some confusion on whether mixed doses qualify. If you are entering Canada, there is a useful tool to help you determine whether you qualify for the travel restriction exemptions. Below is a screen shot from the tool of the possible combinations:
The screenshot shows that combination doses are accepted, if the dose is on the approved list.
Not Accepted Vaccines in Canada
This means that the following vaccines are still not recognised at the moment, though it could change in the future.
- 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)
- Vector Institute (EpiVacCorona)
- Other
The expectation is that the borders will be busier than it has been in a while, so do factor in some additional time when you arrive in Canada, in case you have something urgent to attend.
Safe travels everyone!