Book Sabres tickets and a COVID-19 test in one? Pharmacies get inventive as U.S. border reopens
A COVID-19 test could be booked along with the purchase of Buffalo Bills or Sabres tickets as American pharmacies seek to provide services to an expected surge of Canadians travelling across the border when it reopens to non-essential travel.
Done right, the test result could be e-mailed to a traveller before the game is even over, said Joe Bellavia, the supervising pharmacist at Vital Pharmacy in Buffalo told CTV News Toronto.
“A Sabres game is a perfect example. They could come and be tested before the game, enjoy dinner and we can provide them the results before it’s time to go home,” he said.
Vital Pharmacy is just one example of inventive COVID-19 test ideas being offered on both sides of the border, seeking to find ways to make it convenient — if not necessarily cheap — to cross the border.
Interest in cross-border trips are expected to surge on Nov. 8, when the United States border reopens to non-essential travel for vaccinated individuals. That means going across the border for a game, a shop or for any legal reason will be possible as long as you are fully vaccinated.
But, so far, neither government has changed the testing requirements. To get into the United States, travellers must present a negative antigen test.
And to return to Canada, Canadian citizens must present a negative PCR test that was sampled in the last 72 hours.
On the Canadian side, Go Test Rapid has set up a drive-through testing tent on Jane Street just north of Highway 401 in Toronto. They’re banking that travellers going on short trips will want to get a test before they cross the border because the 72-hour window gives people a lot of flexibility.
“Some people are getting those PCR tests on the way out, and that means they’re already set up for the way back,” Go Test Rapid’s marketing manager, Eden Hazan, told CTV News Toronto.
And to drive the point home, the company is offering a special on getting an antigen test — and a PCR test — at the same time.
“It makes it really easy to travel for a short trip,” head nurse, Rohit Sharma, said.
The Public Health Agency of Canada is still advising against non-essential international travel. Canada opened its borders to vaccinated Americans on August 9. Basic travel documents remain requirements to cross the border.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
'My family doctor just fired me': Ontario patients frustrated with de-rostering
Dozens of Ontarians are expressing frustration in the province’s health-care system after their family doctors either dropped them as patients or threatened to after they sought urgent care elsewhere.
Canada Post cracks down on Nunavut loophole to get free Amazon Prime shipping
Amazon's paid subscription service provides free delivery for online shopping across Canada except for remote locations, the company said in an email. While customers in Iqaluit qualify for the offer, all other communities in Nunavut are excluded.
Adopted daughter in the Netherlands reunited with sister in Montreal and mother in Colombia, 40 years later
Two daughters and a mother were reunited online 40 years later thanks to a DNA kit and a Zoom connection despite living on three separate continents and speaking different languages.
Michael Cohen: A challenging star witness in Donald Trump's hush money trial
He once said he would take a bullet for Donald Trump. Now Michael Cohen is prosecutors' biggest piece of legal ammunition in the former president's hush money trial.
Millions of Canadians have been exposed to potentially toxic chemicals, and they're not going anywhere
For decades, North Bay, Ontario's water supply has harboured chemicals associated with liver and developmental issues, cancer and complications with pregnancy. It's far from the only city with that problem.
As Israel pushes deeper into Rafah, Hamas regroups elsewhere in ungoverned Gaza
Israeli forces were battling Palestinian militants across the Gaza Strip on Sunday, including in parts of the devastated north that the military said it had cleared months ago, where Hamas has exploited a security vacuum to regroup.
4th Indian national arrested, charged with murder of Hardeep Singh Nijjar
Homicide investigators in B.C. say murder charges have been laid against a fourth Indian national in connection to the killing of Sikh activist Hardeep Singh Nijjar outside a Surrey gurdwara last year.
Balancing act: Canadian North’s first Inuk CEO juggles Arctic airline challenges
With carriers' flight volumes above the 60th parallel hovering below pre-pandemic levels, Canadian North’s first Inuk CEO now bears the task of balancing those financial and logistical challenges with the needs of communities for which she feels a deep affinity.
Thousands of civilians evacuated from northeast Ukraine as Russia presses renewed border assault
Thousands more civilians have fled Russia's renewed ground offensive in Ukraine's northeast that has targeted towns and villages with a barrage of artillery and mortar fire, officials said Sunday.