Canada’s largest airlines and the country’s busiest airport are calling on the federal government to drop its rule requiring passengers to be tested for COVID-19 upon arrival.
In a letter to the federal and Ontario governments, Air Canada, WestJet and Toronto Pearson Airport are calling for a transfer of testing capacity from airports to the community.
As COVID-19 cases have increased in recent weeks, many provinces have decided to restrict access to PCR testing to people at higher risk of being hospitalized with COVID-19 or who are in environments where the virus could spread faster.
Travelers arriving in Canada must have a negative molecular test result for COVID-19 prior to arrival. Once at their destination, those coming from any country other than the United States must retest and self-isolate until they get their result. Those who come from the United States are randomly selected to undergo such a test.
Airlines and the airport say testing arriving travelers is not the best use of Canada’s limited testing resources. They estimate that the percentage of positive test results for people screened at airports across Canada in the past week is much lower than that of tests carried out in the community.
Air Canada, WestJet and Pearson Airport want the government to return to random arrival testing for all travelers arriving from overseas and only require isolation for those who show symptoms or test positive after a random test. They argue that those who show no symptoms after testing negative before departing a flight to Canada should not be required to self-isolate.
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