The government of Canada says arriving passengers at Canadian airports may need to isolate for three days while they await COVID-19 test results.
The Trudeau government on Tuesday announced that all travellers coming into Canada from countries other than the U.S. will have to be tested for COVID-19 on arrival, even if they’re fully vaccinated. They also will have to isolate while they await their test results.
The on-arrival test is in addition to the PCR test that Ottawa requires travellers to take within 72 hours of their scheduled flight departure for Canada.
Health Minister Jean-Yves Duclos on Wednesday said those test results could take three days given the workload at Canadian airports, which means visitors and Canadians might have to isolate for 72 hours or more.
That creates a real problem for many if not most travellers, and provides a further disincentive to travel.
The government announced the new testing rules on Tuesday, but it appears not all Canadian airports have things in place just yet. Worried about increasing cases of the Omicron variant of COVID-19, the Trudeau government also has placed a travel ban on 10 African countries.
The Globe and Mail reports that Duclos said travellers will either be tested at their arrival airport or at home.
The Globe also stated that neither Toronto nor Vancouver International Airport had mandatory testing in place as of Wednesday.
“We’re working together with the government on the specific details of the new testing requirements and more information will be available in the coming days,” Toronto Pearson spokesperson Tori Gass said in an email.
“We’re ramping up the capacity,” Transport Minister Omar Alghabra said on Wednesday. “In the coming days we’ll reach full capacity but testing has started.”
“The speed of implementation will also vary in local airport conditions,” Duclos said in a story published in the Toronto Star. “There are airports in Canada which can start doing that really quickly because there is excess capacity. Other airports will take a bit more time.”
In a story posted on the Reuters website, Daniel Gooch, president of the Canadian Airports Council, said airports simply can’t test every passenger arriving from overseas without significant wait times.
“Do we really want people waiting for hours for a test in a customs hall?” he asked.
