Travelers to Canada no longer need pre-entry Covid testing.
The Canadian government announced that from the beginning of April, travelers to Canada who are fully vaccinated do not require a pre-arrival Covid test to visit Canada.
However, prior to landing at the Canadian border, travelers have to submit their vaccination certificates and other required details on the arriveCAN app.
Travelers who bypass submitting their vaccination details on the arriveCAN app must undergo a pre-entry covid test on reaching the country regardless of whether they are vaccinated and may have to face quarantine for two weeks.
Visitors need to provide their details on the app three days before boarding a plane or a cruise.
The visitors who haven’t taken vaccination at all and who are partially vaccinated will still have to undergo pre-arrival covid testing and quarantine.
The pre-entry test submission is needed for Canadians and exempt overseas travelers. On arrival and on the eighth day of their quarantine period, the travelers need to undergo a test.
If a foreign national is not fully vaccinated, they cannot enter Canada unless the situation is exceptional.
To help unvaccinated overseas citizens, the government of Canada sets a tool to decide whether they can enter the country.
The test result performed before entering the country can be provided as proof by travelers who were unqualified as fully vaccinated. The proof could be:
- A valid antigen test, whose result should be negative and must be performed by an authorized lab outside Canada one day before they arrive at the border, or
- A valid molecular test, whose result should be negative and must be performed not more than three days before they arrive at the border, or
- The previous positive molecular test must be performed within ten days before arriving at the border.
- Covid 19 test recovery report performed ten days before the appearance in the country. It should not be longer than 180 days. Antigen tests with positive results will not be accepted by the government.
The travelers will be considered fully vaccinated by the government when they have taken the recommended dose of an approved vaccine.
The government of Canada endorses the following vaccines manufactured by Pfizer, Moderna, Astra-Zeneca, Johnson&Johnson, Bharat Biotech, Novavax, Sinopharm BIBP, and Sinovac.
As per the present reports, the booster shot is not required by the Canadian government.
The traveler must have taken the final dose of the vaccine within two weeks of their coming to Canada.
However, besides all of the above, the border officers may perform the covid test of random travelers to track the covid variant.
On arrival at the border, the travelers selected for random covid testing will not be quarantined while waiting on their results.
