Blurring teems as Ottawa launches new pandemic travel measures with fewer details

Key takeaways: 

• Canada’s airports ‘have no new data on how or when the new testing terms will be completed.’
• Travellers check in at Toronto’s Pearson Airport.

Ottawa confirms new travel measures with lesser details: 

A quickly assembled idea to test all non-American foreign passengers to Canada for COVID-19 has provoked chaos amongst travellers and airport operators similarly — because the federal government has issued few details about how the current laws will be performed.

With the omicron variant in transmission, the federal government declared Tuesday it would make all incoming travellers from non-U.S. foreign destinations get another COVID-19 test when they land in Canada. This new test is in interest to the pre-departure molecular test that all passengers must endure before departing for Canada.

Health Minister Jean-Yves Duclos stated Wednesday the new approach testing program will take impact instantly. “That is starting today,” the minister said reporters. But there are no indications today that the plan is up and working. Source – cbc.ca

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Where? When? Airports need to know

“One concern is just when this goes into effect … something even Air Canada and WestJet appear not to know,” Cameron Turner, a passenger from Victoria, B.C., asked the media. “Another concern is just where travellers are expected to self isolate while waiting for their test results.” Source – cbc.ca

The federal government’s COVID-19 travel website still carries information regarding the early arrival testing claims. Under that outgoing program, completely vaccinated travellers were free from arrival testing but some were randomly chosen for take-home tests.

Those passengers self-administered the test while on a video link with a nurse from a separate firm, such as Dynacare, LifeLabs or Switch Health, to make certain it was made right. The specimen was then shipped via courier to a lab.