Canada removes COVID-19 testing for air travellers arriving from China, Hong Kong or Macao

March 22, 2023

The Government of Canada announced the removal COVID-19 testing requirement for air travellers arriving from the People's Republic of China, Hong Kong or Macao as of March 17, 2023. This means that there will no longer be any federal COVID-19 border measures in place after that time.

On January 5, 2023, in response to the surge of COVID-19 in the People's Republic of China and given the limited data available at that time on those cases, the Government of Canada had put in place temporary pre-departure test requirements for air travellers entering Canada from the People's Republic of China, Hong Kong or Macao.

By now, data from China, the international community, and wastewater sampling conducted in Canada, have not detected any new variants of concern. In addition, the COVID-19 situation in both China and Canada has improved, and the Canadian healthcare systems remain stable.