There’s growing evidence that Canada is open to changing its on-arrival testing program for international air travellers. A prominent tourism and business group yesterday called for on-arrival tests to be scrapped, arguing they’re not necessary and that tests should be redeployed to help make up for test shortages in Canadian communities. Canada’s Chief Public Health Officer, Theresa Tam, said later in the day that the policy will be evaluated “over time.” “It is a capacity drain on the system as a whole,” she said, acknowledging the concerns raised by the Canadian Travel and Tourism Roundtable group. “Tracking every case isn’t Read more
COVID testing
The Canadian Travel and Tourism Roundtable is calling on the federal government to redeploy PCR tests used for on-arrival testing of fully-vaccinated, asymptomatic and previously negative travellers into Canada for community use and for a return to randomized on-arrival testing for surveillance purposes. “On December 17, the federal government announced additional measures to contain the spread of the Omicron variant,” The Roundtable said in a statement. “This included the increase of on-arrival PCR testing for travellers arriving from destinations other than the United States and isolation until test results are received, despite all travellers being fully vaccinated, asymptomatic and having Read more
A top Canadian doctor says Canada doesn’t need to require PCR tests for incoming travellers. “What’s really clear is that COVID is everywhere and that it’s not travel that’s the major source of spread,” said Dr. David Carr, an emergency medicine professor in the Division of Emergency Medicine at the University of Toronto, told the CBC. “Making people repeat their PCR [test] upon arrival is deflecting resources away from where they could be better spent,” he said. “As we watch the loosening of other requirements, such as isolation periods, it would seem that loosening of requirements around travel should follow Read more
An influential Canadian tourism group is urging Ottawa to loosen testing restrictions and allow arriving passengers to get rapid COVID-19 tests. The Canadian government currently requires arriving passengers to provide a negative result from a PCR-style COVID test taken within 72 hours of their scheduled departure. But those tests are expensive, and results in some cases are taking longer than 72 hours to be reported. And that makes travel difficult. British Prime Minister Boris Johnson this week said it will no longer require re-departure tests for people travelling to Great Britain. The Guardian reports that Johnson said the Omicron variant Read more
Canadians will soon be able to visit Israel again. At midnight January 9th, Israel is reopening to tourists and other visitors from Orange designated countries, including Canada. “Fully vaccinated people coming to Israel from a country on the ORANGE list must go into 24-hour isolation or isolate until they receive negative PCR or Rapid Test results, which must be taken at Ben Gurion International Airport, whichever is earlier. Testing is done at upon arrival, just following luggage claim, before exiting the terminal,” officials said. Referring to the abolition of isolation for vaccinated people returning from abroad and the return of Read more
