America's chief medical officer, Dr. Anthony Fauci, in an interview with the CBC’s Power and Politics, said that letting in fully vaccinated Canadians is part of "active conversations" around the border.
"As a public health official, sometimes it's difficult to figure out why policies haven't changed,” Fauci told the CBC, seemingly at odds with the latest US decision to extend its land border closure with Canada.
Last week, the U.S. government renewed its order to keep American land borders with Canada and Mexico closed until at least 21AUG.
The U.S. has never restricted air arrivals from Canada; the recent announcement to extend its ban on non-essential travel from Canada only applies to land border crossings.
Fauci did explain that the extension was largely due to the spread of the delta variant south of the border. He says that about 83 per cent of current American cases can be traced to the variant.
Canada, on the other hand, will begin to allow fully vaccinated Americans across our border by land or air beginning 09AUG. In addition, Ottawa is also on track to accept fully vaccinated international travellers from any country by 07SEP.
The ‘assymetrical’ border re-opening isn’t slowing down enthusiasm to restart travel. Hours after Canada’s announcement, Air Canada released an updated transborder schedule widely expanding its service between the U.S. and Canada with 220 daily added flights on 55 routes to 34 destinations in the U.S.
