The US will allow Canadians with mixed vaccines & here is what to know

Following months of speculation, the US confirmed last Friday that it will allow Canadians with mixed vaccines to travel there. The news comes just weeks before the official opening date of US borders, and is sure to bring a sigh of relief to potential travellers. Here’s what you need to know.

The news came from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the federal public health agency for the country. Its latest Interim Public Health recommendations, released late last Friday night, finally addressed ‘heterologous’ (aka mixing and matching) vaccines.

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And, they recognized the plan from Canada and other countries around the world. Now, travellers will be considered fully vaccinated if they have received ‘any combination’ of vaccines that are approved by the FDA (Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna, and Johnson & Johnson [J&J]/Janssen COVID-19 vaccines), or have been accepted for emergency use by the WHO (AstraZeneca/Oxford).

At the time of writing, the US does not have any standardized verification protocols for travellers. However, travellers may be asked to provide proof of verification from US border agents if deemed necessary. Canadians will still need to provide a negative COVID-19 and use the official ArriveCAN app to verify their vaccination status.

For the updated guidance on travel to the US, click here. For the official travel guidance on returning to Canada, click here instead. Safe travels, folks!