Canada-U.S. land border reopens, but PCR test still a drag on travel

Fully vaccinated Canadians were once again paying long-awaited visits to loved ones, vacation properties and tourist destinations in the United States on Monday as southbound travel restrictions finally began to ease along the world's longest unmilitarized land border.

Shortly after midnight, Customs and Border Protection agents began letting fully vaccinated vacationers, visitors and day-trippers drive into the U.S. for the first time since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020.

"Today marks the day that loved ones who have been separated for the past 19 months will finally be reunited. That is very, very significant," said Rep. Brian Higgins, a New York congressman who has been urging the White House for months to end the restrictions.

But Monday was a day that was too long in coming, considering how long highly effective COVID-19 vaccines have been publicly available in both countries, Higgins added.

"The United States and the Canadian governments failed their people in developing a consistent communication strategy relating to the very thing that all of us have been admonished to do, and that is follow the science, follow the facts, follow the data."