Canada bringing back mandatory random testing of travelers arriving at main airports - starting July 19th 2022

[CGinMTL]

FYI -

The government now says testing will resume as of July 19 for fully vaccinated travelers arriving at the Vancouver, Calgary, Montreal and Toronto airports.

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[Oceangoer2]

deleted

Edited July 14, 2022 by Oceangoer2

[CaptainBazz]

1 hour ago, CGinMTL said:

FYI -

The government now says testing will resume as of July 19 for fully vaccinated travelers arriving at the Vancouver, Calgary, Montreal and Toronto airports.

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Please note that this is 'random testing' at the airport...they will not be testing everyone nor do you need a test to arrive as in the past.

Edited July 14, 2022 by CaptainBazz

[Oceangoer2]

3 minutes ago, CaptainBazz said:

Please note that this is 'random testing'...they will not be testing everyone.

Yes....I see that now in your heading....just was too quick to read your post and I didn't see 'random' mentioned.  Doesn't mean we have to pre-test...just that they will test some travellers at the airport.  Maybe that'll go away by our Nov. cruise.  It's already a mess at the Toronto airport without adding one more tie up.

Edited July 14, 2022 by Oceangoer2

[CGinMTL]

2 minutes ago, CaptainBazz said:

Please note that this is 'random testing' at the airport...they will not be testing everyone nor do you need a test to arrive as in the past.

Exactly. Thanks for the clarification

[CaptainBazz]

2 minutes ago, CGinMTL said:

Exactly. Thanks for the clarification

No problem...when I saw your post I thought... oh no not again... so I googled it. Glad it's only random...aleady happened twice to us so no big deal.

[broberts]

1 minute ago, Oceangoer2 said:

Yes....I see that now in your heading....just was too quick to read your post and I didn't see 'random' mentioned.  Doesn't mean we have to pre-test...just that they will test some travellers at the airport.  Maybe that'll go away by our Nov. cruise.  It's already a mess at the airport without adding one more tie up.

 

I think health authorities are trying to map variant vectors. Apparently they either believe the situation at airports has improved or the data is more important than the added chaos.

 

I doubt we will see the end of random testing this year.

[gnome12]

30 minutes ago, Oceangoer2 said:

Yes....I see that now in your heading....just was too quick to read your post and I didn't see 'random' mentioned.  Doesn't mean we have to pre-test...just that they will test some travellers at the airport.  Maybe that'll go away by our Nov. cruise.  It's already a mess at the Toronto airport without adding one more tie up.

If they continue with what was announced before, the random testing will NOT be done at the airport, although it wasn’t clear before how the process will be managed. 

[Barwick Cruiser]

My son, his wife and daughter are all arriving in Vancouver from NZ on the 22nd and connecting to Toronto….hope they’re not selected but if they are where will they test? Am hoping the testing will only be for those without connecting flights but not holding my breath. 

[broberts]

2 minutes ago, Barwick Cruiser said:

My son, his wife and daughter are all arriving in Vancouver from NZ on the 22nd and connecting to Toronto….hope they’re not selected but if they are where will they test? Am hoping the testing will only be for those without connecting flights but not holding my breath. 

 

Those selected do not have to wait for results before continuing their journey. See https://travel.gc.ca/travel-covid/travel-restrictions/covid-vaccinated-travellers-entering-canada#arrival

[trtog7]

Some may be sent home with Kit and have up to 24 hours to complete test.

Can not find where you are to take test to be read

[Fouremco]

53 minutes ago, gnome12 said:

If they continue with what was announced before, the random testing will NOT be done at the airport, although it wasn’t clear before how the process will be managed. 

I've not located a list of the testing sites, but the government has moved the testing out of airports to nearby off-site locations, such as pharmacies.

 

24 minutes ago, trtog7 said:

Some may be sent home with Kit and have up to 24 hours to complete test.

Can not find where you are to take test to be read

From what I understand, these would be proctored virtual tests, but details are scant as yet.

[ALD18]

There was a major Toronto testing site for departures at one of the big parking lots just outside the airport.  IF they are still doing them it would be a logical place to do it.  They would have the staff, equipment, and administration services available.  May be a headache for those using transit, limo service, or alternate transportation methods to leave the airport though.  But do the Feds care about that.................. 

[bookbabe]

15 minutes ago, ALD18 said:

There was a major Toronto testing site for departures at one of the big parking lots just outside the airport.  IF they are still doing them it would be a logical place to do it.  They would have the staff, equipment, and administration services available.  May be a headache for those using transit, limo service, or alternate transportation methods to leave the airport though.  But do the Feds care about that.................. 

 

Yeah, the Viscount garage at Pearson would make a great testing site, and it is accessible by the train that connects the terminals, so not that inconvenient for travellers.  However, I agree that our government doesn’t seem to be using logic in their decisions, and they might leave it up to Switch Health to find their own off-site location somewhere…or Switch might even use their existing labs, which are somewhere in Mississauga, I think.  Not expecting this to be easy or painless for anyone who gets selected for testing, unfortunately.

[Lena11033]

6 hours ago, Fouremco said:

I've not located a list of the testing sites, but the government has moved the testing out of airports to nearby off-site locations, such as pharmacies.

 

From what I understand, these would be proctored virtual tests, but details are scant as yet.

Hopefully virtual because it would already be hard enough if anyone has a connecting flight. Want me to test fine, but I don't want to miss connecting flight for it.

[broberts]

45 minutes ago, Lena11033 said:

Hopefully virtual because it would already be hard enough if anyone has a connecting flight. Want me to test fine, but I don't want to miss connecting flight for it.

 

I don't understand all the hand-wringing. Presumably those selected for testing that have a connecting flight will be given a self swab kit as described at https://travel.gc.ca/travel-covid/travel-restrictions/covid-vaccinated-travellers-entering-canada#arrival.

[Lena11033]

I know but the arrival testing hasn't been the best organized by the government. Last time I was selected they never informed me I was, then screamed at me because I wasn't following the instructions they never provided.

 

Once I got past the mess of testing, I followed the government's direction from the website (note the airport told me nothing) and I didn't need to quarantine or follow up testing, two days after arriving back had an email from the government saying I needed to quarantine and do my second test as per the instructions I apparently was supposed to receive at the airport. Basically the government kept contradicting their own info, I don't have much trust in the organization of the testing.

[A&L_Ont]

I wonder what happens to the individual who is randomly selected in Vancouver and boards their ship the following day, only to receive their positive result the day after. Yes, they should isolate but what if they don’t have wifi and their phone is off for roaming. 🤷‍♂️

[A&L_Ont]

19 hours ago, broberts said:

 

I think health authorities are trying to map variant vectors. Apparently they either believe the situation at airports has improved or the data is more important than the added chaos.

 

I doubt we will see the end of random testing this year.

We lost 5 weeks of data when they shut it down. Clearly the airport situations haven’t improved but here we are again. I read that current projected case counts today are almost as high as December/January wave but hospitalizations for Covid and deaths from Covid are much lower as the variants continue to lessen in severity. 
 

 If they are trying to map variants these tests should be all done at a specific site so they easily have access to the positive swab immediately to do further analysis. With proctored home testing the positive individual can’t leave the home to mail the swab for further analysis and the pharmacy techs won’t be thrilled with the extra work to send them to PHAC either.  They wouldn’t be able to further studies immediately but they would have to wait for the swabs to get to them, if they request them.
 

A positive swab only says a person has it, and I’m not sure if the public will even know what PHAC chooses to do with that information that they get from airport testing, over and above lab testing across the country that would be sent to them. 
 

As for the end of the year, if Covid is expected to be with us for years, even at the current severity, one should expect the random testing to remain for years too. To bring back testing IMO shows they still think it is valuable, but when will they no longer think it is is the unknown. 
 

At this point of the pandemic I feel like it is a make work project, as we are entering the endemic stages. If severity returned I would be the first asking for testing to return. When Delta was hitting January of 2021 I was questioning why the federal government wasn’t setting up testing and quarantine hotels. Hopefully that stage doesn’t come back again. 🤞

[*Miss G*]

1 hour ago, A&L_Ont said:

With proctored home testing the positive individual can’t leave the home to mail the swab

 

I’ve been selected for random testing at the land border a few times.  The first was mandatory as soon as you cross, which was a complete disaster.  The other times I had to do the proctored test online within 24 hours of arrival in Canada.  At the end of the test you chose a drop-off location or a time and date for Purolator to pick it up; you didn’t have to leave home to mail it.  

 

If they’re doing PCR tests then you wouldn’t even know if you’re positive until they received and tested the swab.  They only way you’re going to know if you’re (maybe) positive is if they’re now giving out the antigen tests and then they’d have to do a PCR test to confirm.

 

The whole thing is ridiculous, anyway, since they’re no longer requiring negative tests to board a flight, so if a positive person is on that flight you may or may not find them by randomly picking people disembarking.  Get your data from the positive cases you’re already receiving.  /rant

[gnome12]

I would think that wastewater analysis is probably going to give the best information about what variants are out in the community. I don’t think travellers are the main issue right now. 

[broberts]

1 hour ago, gnome12 said:

I would think that wastewater analysis is probably going to give the best information about what variants are out in the community. I don’t think travellers are the main issue right now. 

 

Waste water is good for local conditions. It does little to inform of new variant sources.

 

[Fouremco]

1 hour ago, gnome12 said:

I would think that wastewater analysis is probably going to give the best information about what variants are out in the community. I don’t think travellers are the main issue right now. 

If I'm interpreting the GOC's rationale for airport testing correctly, it's to identify the origins and types of variants arriving in Canada, not to determine what is already here in the community.

[gnome12]

5 minutes ago, Fouremco said:

If I'm interpreting the GOC's rationale for airport testing correctly, it's to identify the origins and types of variants arriving in Canada, not to determine what is already here in the community.

I know that’s what they want, but I’m not sure random testing is really going to give them that. 

[Fouremco]

3 minutes ago, gnome12 said:

I know that’s what they want, but I’m not sure random testing is really going to give them that. 

It would be interesting to know how successful the random testing was in identifying the influx of the BA.5 variant. Given the rapid spread of BA.5 in Canada, it would seem that the testing was either unsuccessful in identify its arrival here, or it was successful in noting its arrival but nothing was done about it. In either case, the utility of the random testing is certainly questionable.