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CANADA: Non-essential travellers will soon need a negative COVID test to cross the border

Trudeau says more testing requirements are coming for land crossings
20160921 CBSA International Brisge KA 01
Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) Traffic Building at the Canadian border crossing of the Sault Ste. Marie Internal Bridge. Kenneth Armstrong/SooToday

Mandatory COVID-19 screening for non-essential travellers will apply at Canada-U.S. land borders too, even though non-essential travel is currently prohibited.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said this morning that non-essential travellers will have to show a negative test at the land border with the U.S. He also said his government is "working to stand up additional testing requirements for land travel." 

It is unclear at this time what those additional measures are.

Trudeau also announced today that international flights may only land at Vancouver, Montreal, Calgary and Toronto.

Travellers will require a pre-boarding test as well as a mandatory PCR test at the airport for people returning to Canada. Travellers may have to wait up to three days at an approved hotel for their test results at their own expense, which Trudeau expects will cost more than $2,000. 

Those with negative results will have to quarantine at home with increased surveillance and enforcement, and those with positive results will have to quarantine at government-approved hotels.

 


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