Canada May Open Borders to Fully Vaccinated Americans by Mid-August

Fully vaccinated Americans may be able to visit Canada by mid-August, and fully vaccinated travelers from all countries may be able to visit by early September, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Thursday.

In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, Canada closed its land border with the United States in March 2020 and later restricted entry to other foreign visitors, The Washington Post reported. But those restrictions could be set aside as Canadian vaccination rates increase and virus transmission slows, Trudeau told provincial premiers in a call on Thursday.

"The Prime Minister noted that, if our current positive path of vaccination rate and public health conditions continue, Canada would be in a position to welcome fully vaccinated travelers from all countries by early September," according to a statement from his office, The Post reported. It also said that Trudeau told the premiers that his government could "expect to start allowing fully vaccinated U.S. citizens and permanent residents into Canada as of mid-August for nonessential travel."

Meanwhile, surging COVID-19 cases have prompted Los Angeles County to once again require people to wear masks indoors, even if they are vaccinated. The nation's largest county has had more than 1,000 new cases each day for a week, with more than 400 hospitalizations, the Associated Pressreported.

The new mask order will take effect just before midnight Saturday in "an all-hands-on-deck moment," public health officer Muntu Davis, M.D., said during a virtual news conference. He said the focus will be on education rather than enforcement, and that there will be some exemptions to the mandate, such as when people are actually eating and drinking at restaurants, the AP reported.

California has seen a spike in COVID-19 cases since it fully reopened its economy on June 15. Many cases involve the highly transmissible Delta variant, and the vast majority of cases are among unvaccinated people, the AP said.