CANADIANS, START YOUR ENGINES: U.S. to open land border

UPDATED: The United States is planning to reopen its land border to fully vaccinated Canadians next month after a long and unprecedented period of travel restrictions, according to American congressman Rep. Brian Higgins.

The New York Democrat has been one of the loudest critics in Washington of the continued border restrictions that have lasted for more than a year and a half.

He made the claim in a statement, adding that proof of vaccination will be required, but offered no further details.

Higgins said further details would soon be announced by US federal officials. Higgins’ office said it was seeking additional clarity from the administration on key details including what types of vaccines will suffice.

“The sigh of relief coming from northern border communities following this announcement is so loud it can practically be heard on either end of the Peace Bridge,” Higgins said in the statement, referring to the span that connects Buffalo, N.Y., to Fort Erie, Ont., and one of the busiest bridges between the two countries.

Beginning in early November, the US plans to allow fully vaccinated visitors from a host of countries where stateside travel has long been restricted, including China, India, Ireland, Iran, South Africa, Brazil and the 26 European countries without border controls, known as the Schengen group.

Vaccines approved by either the US Food and Drug Administration or the World Health Organization will be accepted, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention confirmed this week.

But CDC stayed mum on the question of whether those who received a mixed course of vaccines – one dose of Oxford-AstraZeneca and one of Moderna, for instance – would be considered fully vaccinated for travel purposes.

Questions put to the CDC were not immediately answered earlier on Tuesday.

Only about 66 per cent of eligible Americans are fully vaccinated against the virus, according to the latest numbers available from the CDC. By comparison, Health Canada says 81 percent of eligible Canadians 12 or over have had a full course of vaccine.

Both Mexico and Canada have pressed the US for months to ease restrictions on travel that have separated families and curtailed leisure trips since the onset of the pandemic. The latest move follows last month’s announcement that the U.S. will end country-based travel bans for air travel and instead require vaccination for foreign nationals seeking to enter by plane.

Senior administration officials had previewed the new land border policy late Tuesday. Both policies will take effect in early November, the officials said.

What’s needed…

Travellers entering the US by vehicle, rail and ferry will be asked about their vaccination status as part of the standard US Customs and Border Protection admissions process. At officers’ discretion, travellers will have their proof of vaccination verified in a secondary screening process.

Unlike air travel, for which proof of a negative COVID-19 test is required before boarding a flight to enter the US no testing will be required to enter the U.S. by land or sea, provided the travelers meet the vaccination requirement.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the US will accept travellers who have been fully vaccinated with any of the vaccines approved for emergency use by the World Health Organization, not just those in use in the US. That means that the AstraZeneca vaccine, widely used in Canada, will be accepted.

Officials said the CDC was still working to formalize procedures for admitting those who received doses of two different vaccines, as was fairly common in Canada.

The delay in the vaccination requirement for essential cross-border travel is meant to provide truck drivers and others with additional time to get a shot and minimize potential economic disruption from the vaccination mandate, officials said.

All told, the new procedures move toward a policy based on the risk profiles of individuals, rather than less targeted country-based bans.

The vaccination requirement for foreign nationals comes as the White House has moved to impose sweeping vaccination-or-testing requirements affecting as many as 100 million people in the US in an effort to encourage holdouts to get shots.

On Tuesday, the US. Department of Labor completed the initial draft of an emergency regulation that will require employers of 100 workers or more to demand their employees be vaccinated against COVID-19 or tested weekly. The Office of Management and Budget is now reviewing the order before its implementation.

Vaccines and the vaccinated

The move toward restoring regular travel comes as COVID-19 cases in the US have dropped to about 85,000 per day, the lowest level since July, following a spike from the more transmissible delta variant of the virus.

Per capita case rates in Canada and Mexico have been markedly lower in the two countries than the US for the duration of the pandemic, which amplified frustrations about the U.S. restrictions on travel.

Mexico has not put in place any COVID-19 entry procedures for travellers. Canada allows entry of fully-vaccinated individuals with proof of vaccination against COVID-19 as well as proof of a negative test conducted within 72 hours of entry to the country.

The land border between the US and Canada has been closed to the Canadians since the pandemic was declared in March 2020, other than for essential purposes. Canada opened its border to Americans crossing to Canada in August this year.

The Frontier Duty Free Association, the industry group representing Canada’s land-border duty-free businesses, said recently sales are down 80 percent compared to pre-pandemic levels due to a lack of border traffic.

. The United States has allowed air travel from Canada since the beginning of the pandemic.