Ottawa dropping random COVID-19 testing at Canadian airports for vaccinated travellers
Global News
Ottawa will temporarily end random COVID-19 testing of incoming international passengers at Canadian airports, the government announced Friday.
Ottawa will temporarily end random COVID-19 testing of incoming international passengers at Canadian airports.
Random testing at airports will be temporarily suspended at all airports starting on Saturday, June 11 until June 30, according to a joint statement from Transport Minister Omar Alghabra, Health Minister Jean-Yves Duclos, Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino and Tourism Minister Randy Boissonnault.
Unvaccinated travellers will still be required to be tested on-site.
The government is also announcing that, as of July 1, all testing, including for unvaccinated travellers, will be performed off-site.
The news comes after federal public health officials said Friday they were looking at updating their advice to government on the random testing reuquirement.
Chief public health officer Dr. Theresa Tam says the testing is not done to monitor travelers for infection, but rather as a way to measure emerging variants of SARS-CoV-2 that may be making their way into Canada from other countries.
“The random testing is not to detect every case. It is there to provide an early-warning system for variants of concern,” Tam said on Friday at a Public Health Agency of Canada press conference.
Deputy chief Dr. Howard Njoo said PHAC will be providing updated guidance regarding this random testing to lawmakers that could look at other ways to measure new variants of COVID-19 in Canada.
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