Public Health Agency of Canada announced today that random COVID-19 testing at airports will resume on July 19th.
The federal agency had suspended the mandatory testing last month to move the tests outside of the airports so as to reduce the significant wait times experienced at some Canadian airports.
Starting July 19, 2022, fully vaccinated travellers arriving in Canada by air to the four major Canadian airports – Vancouver, Calgary, Montreal and Toronto – will be selected randomly to undergo testing outside of airports.
As per the news release, the testing will be completed either via an in-person appointment at select testing provider locations and pharmacies, or a virtual appointment for a self-swab test.
Testing will also be done for partially or unvaccinated people. Those who are unvaccinated must continue to test on Day 1 and Day 8 of their mandatory 14-day quarantine.
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.
RANDOM TESTING SELECTION
As per the news release, those travellers who are selected for random testing and are fully vaccinated, as well as air travellers who do not qualify as fully vaccinated, will receive an email notification within 15 minutes of completing their customs declaration.
This email will contain information to help them arrange for their test with a testing provider in their region.
All vaccinated travellers who are randomly selected for the border testing surveillance program must complete arrival mandatory testing requirements. You can take connecting flights and trains without waiting for your arrival test results. Fully vaccinated travellers arriving from any country aren’t required to quarantine while awaiting their test result if you’re randomly selected for a mandatory arrival test.
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.
Arrival, Day 8 and mandatory random COVID-19 molecular tests must be completed with a Public Health Agency of Canada-approved test provider.
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.
Further details can be found here.