Canada Will Update Border Protocol On Feb 28

Starting February 28, the Canadian government will be relaxing some of its safety measures for fully vaccinated travelers crossing into Canada.

The Canadian government will be adjusting their COVID-19 guidelines at the border due to the current nature of the pandemic.

According to a news release by the Canadian government, recent data has indicated that the latest wave of COVID-19 is driven by the Omicron variant has passed its peak in Canada, which is a big influence behind Canadian territories deciding to adjust their public health measures and the border protocol.

It is the news that everyone has been longing for here, and perhaps the people who have been the most eager about getting back to a sense of border normalcy are the families who are split from Canada to the United States. 

Marcella Picone has been one of the biggest pushers behind getting the border protocols to relax a bit. She is an activist with “Families Are Essential,” which is a Facebook group that works to reunite those families that have been separated by borders due to the pandemic. 

Picone and her group are working together in hopes that Canada reciprocates what the US has done; the US opened up their land border to only fully vaccinated Canadians, and they didn't need a test to cross the border.

As of now, fully vaccinated travelers crossing into Canada are still subject to testing. However, fully vaccinated travelers coming into the U.S. are not subject to COVID-19 testing.

Starting on February 28, the Canadian Government is making the following adjustments:

• Antigen tests will be accepted
• Travel health notice drops to level 2
• Randomized testing returns

Some family members have taken to social media and expressed that these changes with no set plan are not good enough.

The Canadian Minister of Transport said they “will continue to evaluate our measures and will not hesitate to make necessary adjustments [to keep] our transportation system safe.”