Updated Canada/US Border Rules Announced 19 July 2021

[DisDee1982]

This applies to Canadian children.

Thanks. Can you direct me to where you heard that it applies to Canadian children?
When I looked at the Canada website it only says this applies to American families.

 

[scrappinginontario]

this is incorrect. If she is fully vaccinated she does not have to stay out of school. This is only for kids who are not fully vaccinated

If you go on the Ontario website and do the back to school screening, the moment you select 'yes' beside, has this person be outside of Canada in the past 14 days, a big red X is displayed which states my child cannot go to school.

There are no questions re: vaccinations. The same rules apply to adults working in the school setting as I tried that too for a friend who is a teacher and also had a Disney trip booked in August.





This is who it stats are exempt from federal quarantine requirements:



All of these pictures are from the official Ontario COVID-19 school screening.

If you feel the Ontario website is out of date @Kebby, please provide a link to where you are seeing something different published by the province of Ontario or country of Canada. I go to those for my sources as opposed to news websites.

I'd love to be wrong about this but so far, I can't find anything official that says differently. Thanks.

 

[podgirl]

If you go on the Ontario website and do the back to school screening, the moment you select 'yes' beside, has this person be outside of Canada in the past 14 days, a big red X is displayed which states my child cannot go to school.

There are no questions re: vaccinations. The same rules apply to adults working in the school setting as I tried that too for a friend who is a teacher and also had a Disney trip booked in August.

View attachment 591859

View attachment 591860

This is who it stats are exempt from federal quarantine requirements:

View attachment 591861

All of these pictures are from the official Ontario COVID-19 school screening.

If you feel the Ontario website is out of date @Kebby, please provide a link to where you are seeing something different published by the province of Ontario or country of Canada. I go to those for my sources as opposed to news websites.

I'd love to be wrong about this but so far, I can't find anything official that says differently. Thanks.

It’s all so confusing. But, if you click on the ‘If exempt from quarantine requirements’ part, it goes to a page that says if you are fully vaccinated plus two weeks, you do not have to quarantine. So, you select ‘No’ when it asks if you’ve been outside of Canada in the past 14 days.
Where is says ‘Find out if your travel is exempt’ click through and then click on ‘All eligible vaccinated travellers’

 

[damo]

If you go on the Ontario website and do the back to school screening, the moment you select 'yes' beside, has this person be outside of Canada in the past 14 days, a big red X is displayed which states my child cannot go to school.

There are no questions re: vaccinations. The same rules apply to adults working in the school setting as I tried that too for a friend who is a teacher and also had a Disney trip booked in August.

View attachment 591859

View attachment 591860

This is who it stats are exempt from federal quarantine requirements:

View attachment 591861

All of these pictures are from the official Ontario COVID-19 school screening.

If you feel the Ontario website is out of date @Kebby, please provide a link to where you are seeing something different published by the province of Ontario or country of Canada. I go to those for my sources as opposed to news websites.

I'd love to be wrong about this but so far, I can't find anything official that says differently. Thanks.

You have to keep following the links as to fully quarantined restrictions.

https://travel.gc.ca/travel-covid/t...d-travellers-entering-canada#entry-vaccinated
You will see this ...

You may qualify for certain exemptions to quarantine and testing requirements if you:

• are eligible to enter Canada
• are asymptomatic
• meet the Government of Canada requirements of fully vaccinated travellers
• meet all other entry requirements, including entering your information in ArriveCAN before arrival

Those who meet the requirements may be exempt from:

• quarantine
• hotel stopover (for air travellers)
• day-8 testing requirement

Entry requirements for the fully vaccinated exemption
Fully vaccinated travellers must follow the entry requirements:

• Pre-entry test required
• Quarantine plan in case you don’t get the exemption
• Arrival test
• Requirements checklist

 

[BlancheNeige7]

It’s all so confusing. But, if you click on the ‘If exempt from quarantine requirements’ part, it goes to a page that says if you are fully vaccinated plus two weeks, you do not have to quarantine. So, you select ‘No’ when it asks if you’ve been outside of Canada in the past 14 days.
Where is says ‘Find out if your travel is exempt’ click through and then click on ‘All eligible vaccinated travellers’

I am a teacher and have been looking at this very closely as well. Both the provincial and city (Ottawa) screening tool would have teachers/students able to return to school if exempt from quarantine.

 

[Baldy]

I am a teacher and have been looking at this very closely as well. Both the provincial and city (Ottawa) screening tool would have teachers/students able to return to school if exempt from quarantine.

I hope it works out for you. I know Halton District School Board has said teachers cannot return to class if they have travelled within 14 days (regardless of general guidelines) and cannot use sick days to cover any days that they cannot teach due to travel. I think Peel district is the same. My sister just cancelled her trip

 

[mshanson3121]

Thanks. Can you direct me to where you heard that it applies to Canadian children?
When I looked at the Canada website it only says this applies to American families.

Because Canadians are subject to the exact same protocol.

 

[scrappinginontario]

Thanks! It is all very confusing but the information provided above by @podgirl and @damo is very helpful! Since our school board has not said our requirements differ from ON, it appears my daughter could have gone to school but that would not have changed us cancelling our trip. Just too many hoops for us to jump through right now re: testing when coming home + crazy high cases in FL and crowded parks, I'm comfortable with delaying our trip. But, that's just what works for us.

 

[Iralyn]

I'm keeping an eye on the quarantine requirements for schools too. I'd hoped to do a long weekend pre-Christmas trip to NYC. I will have some extra days (lieu days for some work that I'm doing for the school board this summer) that I can use during the school year and I've always wanted to see the holiday windows, etc. in New York. But it won't work if the kiddo and I (both fully vaxxed) can't return to school for two weeks. And, of course, rising case counts in the US make me a little more hesitant to make plans anyhow.

 

[BlancheNeige7]

I hope it works out for you. I know Halton District School Board has said teachers cannot return to class if they have travelled within 14 days (regardless of general guidelines) and cannot use sick days to cover any days that they cannot teach due to travel. I think Peel district is the same. My sister just cancelled her trip

I ended up booking so that I come back 14 days before just in case... would not be surprised if other boards send out the same memo.

 

[spewey]

From a careful reading of the COVID screening tool for schools in Ontario, it is clear to me that those exempt from the federal mandate for quarantining - which includes fully vaccinated travelers - are to select "NO" when answering the 14 day travel question.

This change was made to align Ontario's screening tools (including those for businesses and congregate settings) with the new federal guidelines. No doubt this has and will cause confusion, but it makes sense, and had to happen. In my organization, for example, it would be patently unfair for someone to travel, following all the complicated rules laid out by the Feds, and then not be allowed to return to work for two weeks.

Not that everyone has caught up to this. I went in for eye surgery yesterday and the clinic still has a "have you been outside of Ontario in 14 days" question. Huh? I haven't, but I did ask what if I had? I had no idea that was even a thing. She said they would have to postpone my procedure. Seriously? I actually asked why that was still there - she said she didn't know, and everyone knew just to answer "no' regardless. My reply was to suggest that needed to change - like right away.

Interesting that it appears some school boards may be going against their own province's screening protocols. Wonder how that will fly with the Union. Also makes me a bit skeptical of their science curriculum ...

 

[Iralyn]

From a careful reading of the COVID screening tool for schools in Ontario, it is clear to me that those exempt from the federal mandate for quarantining - which includes fully vaccinated travelers - are to select "NO" when answering the 14 day travel question.

This change was made to align Ontario's screening tools (including those for businesses and congregate settings) with the new federal guidelines. No doubt this has and will cause confusion, but it makes sense, and had to happen. In my organization, for example, it would be patently unfair for someone to travel, following all the complicated rules laid out by the Feds, and then not be allowed to return to work for two weeks.

Not that everyone has caught up to this. I went in for eye surgery yesterday and the clinic still has a "have you been outside of Ontario in 14 days" question. Huh? I haven't, but I did ask what if I had? I had no idea that was even a thing. She said they would have to postpone my procedure. Seriously? I actually asked why that was still there - she said she didn't know, and everyone knew just to answer "no' regardless. My reply was to suggest that needed to change - like right away.

Interesting that it appears some school boards may be going against their own province's screening protocols. Wonder how that will fly with the Union. Also makes me a bit skeptical of their science curriculum ...

At one point, my sister (in a very low Covid case area compared to most of the province at the time) had to answer a questionnaire each time she went to her massage therapist that asked, "Have you travelled or had visitors from outside of our local health unit?" It has since been changed.

I just found the memo that we were sent last August by the school board and it basically said, "to adhere with public health guidance" regarding quarantine so I would guess that I will be okay to travel as a fully-vaccinated person. It does also say that we are supposed to contact HR regarding any travel plans 'for advice'. Hopefully things will be the same for my daughter.

This is the updated Ontario 'customer screening' (my daughter had to complete it yesterday for a community event) that does differentiate based on vaccination status. I'm guessing that the school screening may soon be updated too.

 

[pigletto]

I hope it works out for you. I know Halton District School Board has said teachers cannot return to class if they have travelled within 14 days (regardless of general guidelines) and cannot use sick days to cover any days that they cannot teach due to travel. I think Peel district is the same. My sister just cancelled her trip

Have they said this recently, or is this the guidance that was in place before the federal guidelines changed?

 

[TammyLynn33]

I watered screening and I ask if you or anyone you live with has been out of Canada ? Someone asked me what if I go out of country august 9th. No one had an answer
When little and DD got swabbed the first question we were asked was had we been out of out health unit . I asked well we are allowed to right ? It almost seems like it would be easier to simply blame travel vs investigate .. imo

 

[Baldy]

Have they said this recently, or is this the guidance that was in place before the federal guidelines changed?

My sister’s school admin. sent a notice out to staff last week, “reminding” everyone of the guidelines. It’s possible they were basing it on outdated information, but she wasn’t willing to take the chance.

 

[pigletto]

My sister’s school admin. sent a notice out to staff last week, “reminding” everyone of the guidelines. It’s possible they were basing it on outdated information, but she wasn’t willing to take the chance.

Interesting. I can see requiring a test to come back to work but the 14 day quarantine for fully vaccinated travellers who tested twice to get back into the country is ridiculous in my opinion, and for optics only.

If I had to guess , It’s to keep the staff from travelling because they are about to tell parents that they can’t bring their unvaccinated kids back to school after travelling without quarantine. And travelling staff looks bad when the families in the board can’t travel. This is all just my assumptions.. we will see I guess.

 

[kimmer]

In Ontario Shoppers has the Rapid Antigen test for $40 that is acceptable to fly to the U.S., and Walgreens has the free Rapid ID Now test for the return. As of today no need for the expensive PCR versions.

Can you tell me more about the Walgreens test? We’re trying to figure out what test to get for reentry to Canada. Any info on either test (going to US and coming back to Canada) would be appreciated!

 

[tinderbell&pixiedust]

Can you tell me more about the Walgreens test? We’re trying to figure out what test to get for reentry to Canada. Any info on either test (going to US and coming back to Canada) would be appreciated!

Walgreen offers FREE, contactless COVID-19 testing for age 3 and up at select locations. The testing is done drive thru.

https://www.walgreens.com/findcare/covid19/testing?ban=covidfy21_newtestingpg_heroban

 

[Sue M]

Can you tell me more about the Walgreens test? We’re trying to figure out what test to get for reentry to Canada. Any info on either test (going to US and coming back to Canada) would be appreciated!

We fly out of YVR, and there is a company in the airport doing testing to go into the US for $129, it’s the Antigen test that’s good for the US.
Returning home we plan to go do the free Walgreens test. The Rapid ID one qualifies for Canada. I won’t have a car so we’ll have to get a Mears taxi to take us for the drive thru.

 

[Seaera]

So for the return test before flying home to Canada, what if one of us tests positive? We will all be fully vaccinated but I’ve heard there’s some still contracting the virus that are vaccinated. Will we be denied boarding the flight coming home? I can’t imagine being stuck and not able to come home…