Nunavut has suspended its common travel area with the NWT as of Aug. 17, said Nunavut’s acting chief public health officer Dr. Anne Huang announced.
“Following the increased risk of COVID-19 in the NWT, we will close our side of the common travel area with the territory beginning today,” said Huang. “Individuals who are not fully-vaccinated with a Health Canada-approved COVID-19 vaccine must isolate at the designated isolation hub in Yellowknife for 14 days before travelling home to Nunavut.”
Exceptions to isolation requirements include: travellers with a same-ticket layover through Yellowknife, vaccinated travellers with unvaccinated dependents 12 years old and younger, critical workers with an authorized travel letter or those granted compassionate exemption.
Exemptions for fully-vaccinated travellers are also still in place. Fully-vaccinated individuals travelling from the NWT to Nunavut can still skip isolation by filling out a vaccination exemption form and submitting it to vaccineexemptions@gov.nu.ca.
As of Aug. 17, there were 34 confirmed active cases of COVID-19 in the NWT, mostly in Yellowknife, with 30 exposure notices issued since Aug. 5.
There have been no hospitalizations thus far and the COVID variants for each case remain unknown.
READ MORE: Northwest Territories has 34 active COVID-19 cases, six more probable