Mixed doses OK for U.S. travel
Proof of vaccination acceptable for Canadians
There is good border news for Canadians who want to visit the United States but who received mixed doses of COVID-19 vaccines.
The White House confirmed Friday that land border crossings for vaccinated non-essential travellers will resume on Nov. 8. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention later confirmed it will consider those who have received doses of two different vaccines to be fully vaccinated for purposes of entering the country.
“While CDC has not recommended mixing types of vaccines in a primary series, we recognize that this is increasingly common in other countries so should be accepted for their interpretation of vaccine records” the agency said.
It added that the change of approach to mixed vaccines for travellers should not guide clinical practice in the U.S.
Earlier in the day, Public Safety Minister Bill Blair said Ottawa had been “working with CDC to make sure they have the information on Canada’s mixed dose regime.”
Blair also said the Canadian government is “considering” at what point it might be able to eliminate its requirement of a negative result from a PCR test for fully vaccinated travellers returning to Canada.
For now, that requirement remains in place because it continues to be the advice of the Public Health Agency of Canada, and Blair said it’s believed to have been “pretty effective” at limiting the importation of COVID-19.
But Blair also acknowledged that four months of random testing at the border has shown only 0.19 per cent of fully vaccinated travellers entering Canada had COVID-19 — a number he called “very low.”
Blair, whose portfolio includes the Canada Border Services Agency, said he has received a lot of pressure from U.S. representatives and businesses on both sides of the border, including Canadians who are keen to start day-tripping in the U.S., and who want the PCR test requirement dropped at the land border. Having two regimes, however, was out of the question.
U.S. officials have previously indicated they intended to accept vaccinations approved by the World Health Organization as valid, even if the vaccines in question, including the AstraZeneca vaccine, which has been used in Canada, were not approved for use in the U.S.
Nearly four million Canadians, including Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, received mixed doses, and their ability to visit the U.S. would have been blocked if American officials had refused to recognize them.