How could Monday’s U.S. border reopening to Canadians impact Whatcom County?
If you haven’t gone already, it may be too late for one last stock up at your Whatcom County Costco and Trader Joe’s.
The Canadians are coming!
For the first time in 597 days, Canadians will be allowed to cross the land border into the U.S. for “non-essential” travel reasons, such as shopping or to reconnect with friends or families they haven’t seen in person in more than 20 months since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Though vaccinated Americans have been allowed to enter Canada since August, it wasn’t until Monday, Nov. 8, that the U.S. matched its neighbors to the north and began allowing travel for any reasons beyond trade and other “essential” purposes.
Though proof of vaccination will be needed for travelers headed both north and south, the U.S. will not require a negative COVID test for entry.
But Canada is still requiring proof of negative test result within the past 72 hours for northbound traffic, even Canadian citizens.
That has many in Whatcom County concerned how many Canadians will attempt to get tested while they are in the U.S. and how much of an impact that will have on Whatcom County’s already burdened COVID testing capacity.
“Whatcom County testing sites have experienced extremely high demand since July,” Whatcom County Health Department spokesperson Melissa Morin told The Bellingham Herald in an email.
To answer that high demand, the health department’s testing partner, Northwest Laboratory, has added nine hours worth of testing capacity in recent weeks, Morin reported, adding that the health department and Northwest Laboratory have been able to facilitate testing an additional 40 to 60 people per day who are either close contacts to someone with COVID or have COVID symptoms if they aren’t able to get tested within a day elsewhere.
But how many Canadians will likely seek testing while they’re in Whatcom County?
“Many of the travelers from Canada to Whatcom County come for single-day trips,” Morin wrote. “Canadian residents may use results from a test administered in Canada if their re-entry is within 72 hours.
“Given that, we expect that many Canadians will seek testing before their trip and will not need to be tested in Whatcom County.”
Whatcom COVID testing tips
Morin went on to offer the following testing tips for travelers, some of which Whatcom residents also could find helpful:
▪ The Whatcom County testing site is in parking lot A at Bellingham International Airport (near 4225 Mitchell Way in Bellingham). Testing is available every day between 11 a.m. and 1:45 p.m. and 3 to 6 p.m. Additional morning hours are from 7 to 9:45 a.m. Wednesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays.
▪ Canadians and other travelers staying outside Whatcom County are advised to try scheduling their pre-travel test near where they are staying.
▪ Appointments at the Whatcom community testing site are usually booked a few days in advance, so it is recommended to book your test well in advance.
▪ Do not call the health department for travel-related testing. The priority at the community testing site is to test people experiencing COVID symptoms or have had known exposures. While travel-related testing is available at the airport site, the health department cannot assist in setting it up. Instead, book online at testdirectly.com/whatcom or call 360-543-6904.
▪ Walk-ins are not accepted. All tests require an appointment.
▪ Canadian health insurance is not accepted at the Whatcom community testing site. The cost is $180, with a 25% discount if you pay when you book your appointment or when you get tested.
▪ Results are typically available in 24 to 48 hours.
Canada’s testing policy
Though many Canadians, especially snowbirds, are excited about the opportunity to drive south, they do not all agree on whether the country should keep its testing requirement.
A Leger survey for the Association for Canadian Studies and Metropolis North American found that 68.3% of Canadian residents who plan to drive south before the end of the year would like to see the country drop its testing requirement for re-entry, according to a story by The Province.
But of those who are not planning to travel south in 2021, only 26.7% said they wanted to see the requirement dropped.
Whether or not Canada decides to keep the testing requirement could impact how many Canadians decided to cross the border for day or weekend trips, Association for Canadian Studies and Metropolis President Jack Jedwab told The Province, saying “I don’t expect there to be line-ups at the border if the PCR test requirements remain in place.”
Border crossing volume
Despite that, the U.S. Customs and Border Protection is telling travelers to expect longer wait times at land Ports of Entry.
“We know and we expect that there will be wait times as travel increases,” Matthew Davies, the executive director of admissibility and passenger programs at U.S. Customs and Border Protection, told National Public Radio in Michigan. “We do expect to have a full complement of staffing to handle this surge.”
But how many Canadian travelers should Whatcom County expect?
While that is difficult to answer, a look at how many Americans took advantage of the Canadian border opening since August suggests what we sort of travel volume we can expect.
Since Canada began allowing vaccinated Americans to cross the border on Aug. 9, cross-border traffic has increased, but not to pre-pandemic levels, according to data released by Canada Border Services Agency.
In the Pacific Region, which includes the five Ports of Entry from Whatcom County into British Columbia among others, Canada reported 293,478 foreign nationals made crossings from the U.S. into Canada between Aug. 9 and Oct. 24 (or about 26,680 crossings per week).
That is approximately two-and-a-half times the number of foreign visitors Canada welcomed during a similar time period in 2020 (10,458 crossings per week) when the border was closed to non-essential travel, but less than a third of the 93,106 crossings per week seen in 2019 before COVID hit the area.
But in the four weeks since the U.S. announced that it was allowing “non-essential” travel, Vacasa, a management company for more than 30,00 vacation homes in North American, Belize and Costa Rica, reported a 120% increase in Canadian users viewing rentals in popular destinations for snowbirds, according to an Abbotsford News story.
This story was originally published November 7, 2021 at 5:00 AM.
