Toronto airport to line up arrivals by vaccination status

Canada is not open for tourists; only essential travel is allowed. To be granted entry, visitors must submit proof of a negative PCR COVID-19 test result and undergo a 3-day quarantine at a government-approved hotel at a cost of CAD $2,000 per person if they are not fully vaccinated.

Canada is planning to reopen its borders to fully vaccinated Americans by mid-August and the rest of the world by early September.

International travellers arriving at Canada’s largest airport may now be funnelled into different customs lines based on their vaccination status.

Toronto’s Pearson International Airport said Saturday it may be splitting passengers coming from the U.S. or other international destinations into vaccinated and partially or non-vaccinated queues.

“This is a measure to help streamline the border clearance process as there are different entry requirements for vaccinated and non/partially vaccinated travellers, which have been broadly communicated by the Government of Canada,” said Beverly MacDonald, a spokeswoman for the Greater Toronto Airports Authority.

The Vancouver International Airport has instituted a similar policy.

Fully vaccinated Canadian citizens and permanent residents are now able to skip a 14-day quarantine. Our government in Australia has not yet figured this one out!

As of Aug. 9, fully vaccinated U.S. citizens and permanent residents will be allowed into Canada, followed by the rest of the world on Sept 7.

Ontario reported 170 new cases of COVID-19 on Saturday and three more deaths.

In Toronto, there were 44 new cases, with another 26 in the Peel Region, 17 in Hamilton, 15 in the Region of Waterloo and 13 in Grey Bruce.

The numbers were based on 19,131 tests.

There were 132 patients in intensive care with critical COVID-related illness and 86 on ventilators.

More than 124,000 doses of vaccines were administered in the previous day, for a total of more than 18.8 million.

Of the 170 new cases, 122 of them are in people under age 40, while just one of the new cases is in someone 80 or older.