Negative COVID-19 test to be required at Canadian land borders, effective Monday

Feb 9, 2021 | 10:52 AM

OTTAWA, ON – As of next Monday, anyone arriving in Canada by land will need to show a recent negative COVID-19 test.

The move coming into effect on February 15 is the same stipulation for those landing in Canada by air. It’s the latest move by the federal government to curtail the spread of more contagious variants of the novel coronavirus.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Tuesday morning (Feb. 9) the Ottawa cannot prevent Canadians from returning at a land border without a test, but if they don’t have one, they can be fined up to $3,000.

Additionally, Health Canada is set to launch a new plan for getting six doses, not five, out of a vial of the Pfizer and BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine.

The agency has issued a label change authorization to the Pfizer-BioNTech to reflect that each vial contains six doses as opposed to five.

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Health Canada has determined that six full doses can be consistently obtained from vials with the use of low dead-volume syringes. The agency and other international regulators require vaccine vials to include a certain amount of overfill to ensure there is sufficient vaccine in each vial to yield the expected doses.

Health Canada has determined that there will still be an acceptable amount of overfill following the label change, and Canada will receive vials with the updated labels in future shipments.

by Justin Goulet

Negative COVID-19 test to be required at Canadian land borders, effective Monday

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