Canada to re-introduce random testing for travellers

Canada to re-introduce random testing for travellers
By James Harrison


The Canadian Government announced last week that it has re-established mandatory random testing offsite for air travellers.

The testing resumed as of 19 July 2022, for travellers who qualify as fully vaccinated, arriving in Canada by air to the four major Canadian airports, Vancouver, Calgary, Montreal and Toronto.

To qualify as a fully vaccinated traveller to Canada, travellers must have been vaccinated with a primary series of a COVID-19 vaccines accepted by the Government of Canada for the purpose of travel at least 14 calendar days before entering Canada. A list of the accepted vaccines can be found here.

All testing for air travellers will be completed outside of airports, either via an in-person appointment at select testing provider locations and pharmacies, or a virtual appointment for a self-swab test.

Travellers who do not qualify as fully vaccinated, unless exempt, must continue to test on day one and day eight of their mandatory 14-day quarantine.

The reasoning behind testing outside of airports is that it “will support testing for travellers arriving by air while still being able to monitor and quickly respond to new variants of concern, or changes to the epidemiological situation,” the Public Health Agency of Canada said in a statement.

Air travellers who are selected for mandatory random testing will receive an email notification within 15 minutes of completing their customs declaration. The email will contain information to help them arrange for their test with a testing provider in their region.

Unvaccinated travellers can complete their tests by a virtual appointment or an in-person appointment with the test provider at their store or at select pharmacies and still respect their quarantine requirements.

“As we have said all along, Canada’s border measures will remain flexible and adaptable, guided by science and prudence,” Jean-Yves Duclos, the Canadian minister of health, said.

“We need to keep border testing measures in place because that is how we track importation of the COVID-19 virus, and of new variants of concern.

“We will keep adapting our border measures to balance the need to protect Canadians while supporting our economic recovery.”

All travellers must continue to use ArriveCAN (free mobile app or website) to provide mandatory travel information within 72 hours before their arrival in Canada, and/or before boarding a cruise ship destined for Canada, with few exceptions.

If your arrival test result is positive, you must go into isolation and follow the federal requirement to isolate for 10 days from the date of the test result. Your 10-day isolation is required, even if the isolation requirement is shorter in your province or territory.

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