More than a week after the Canadian government announced increased testing at Canadian airports, they’re only halfway to the final target.
Worried about the discovery of the Omicron variant of COVID-19, the federal government on November 30 announced that all passengers arriving at Canadian airports from destinations other than Canada and the U.S. would need to be tested. Exactly how testing would work was unclear, and it’s been slow to roll out.
Canadian Health Minister Jean-Yves Duclos on Friday conceded that Canada’s airport testing, which is the responsibility of the federal government, is nowhere near its final target.
Duclos said that, as of Nov. 30, Canadian airport could test 11,000 passengers a day. They’ve ramped that up to 17,000, he said. But that’s only halfway to the target of 23,000.
“Our testing capacity is increasing steadily and significantly but it still remains incomplete,” he said.
CTV News reports that Ottawa “has awarded contracts to private firms to help with additional COVID-19 testing and processing, but Duclos couldn’t say when the government will be ready and able to test all incoming travellers” from non-U.S. destinations.
Duclos warned on Friday that Canadians travelling outside of the country face “risky and unstable” conditions given the Omicron variant. He also suggested that Canada could slap a warning on all travel outside the country, but that he’s not ready for that just yet.
