Fully vaccinated Americans will be welcomed back to Canada on August 9

Canadian Minister of Health Patty Hajdu

 

Fully vaccinated Americans will be welcomed back to Canada on August 9 for non-essential travel for the first time in 16 months

Canadian officials announced Monday that they would begin allowing fully vaccinated US residents and permanent citizens to return to the country on August 9.

Americans will have to provide Canadian officials with a negative COVID test performed within 72 hours of leaving their flight or arriving at a border crossing.

They will also have to upload proof of the COVID vaccine

The announcement comes more than a year since US and Canadian officials first closed the 5,500-mile border.

It is still not clear if the US will open its borders to Canadians.

Canadian officials announced Monday that they would begin allowing fully vaccinated US residents and permanent citizens to return to the country for non-essential travel on August 9, as the threat of the COVID-19 pandemic begins to wane.

Visitors from other countries will also be allowed into the country on September 7, provided that COVID rates in Canada remain low.

"With vaccination rates rising and cases declining in Canada, we can safely begin to ease border measures," Canadian Health Minister Patti Hajdu said in a statement.

Canada's Health Minister Patti Hajdu announced that the country would begin lifting travel restrictions as COVID rates drop across the country.

Americans who wish to travel to Canada must provide Canadian officials with a negative COVID test performed within 72 hours of leaving their flight or arriving at a border crossing, the Washington Post reported.

They will also be required to upload proof of their complete vaccination to a Canadian government application at least two weeks before their departure.

According to the Wall Street Journal, officials have said they will not order follow-up tests from people who have been fully vaccinated unless they undergo random tests.

Fully vaccinated Americans will also be allowed to bring their unvaccinated children younger than 12 into the country. Still, they won't be able to enter group settings such as camps or nurseries.

More than a million cars crossed the border from Canada into the United States each month before the pandemic

Canadian Prime Minister Trudeau and US President Biden meet once a month to expand border closures. They are expected to discuss the matter again on Wednesday.

The 5,500-mile border between the United States and Canada has been closed since March 2020, with officials from both countries extending travel bans each month as the pandemic continues.

But over time, pressure has grown within the two countries to reopen the borders, which saw more than a million cars pass from Canada to the United States daily before the pandemic, Bloomberg reported.

In Canada, tourism officials said travel restrictions cost them about $20 billion in Canadian revenue last year. In the United States, the American Travel Association estimates that closing borders cost each month $1.5 billion in economic impact.

Earlier this month, Representative Bill Huizinga of Michigan led 75 members of the House of Representatives to send a letter to Biden, calling for the border to be reopened. The letter asked the United States president to "begin taking science-based, data-driven steps to reopen international travel safely."