With the continuous evolution of COVID-19 pandemic, the Government of Canada has announced a temporary negative COVID-19 test mandate for 30 days for travelers entering Canada from the People’s Republic of China, Hong Kong, or Macao effective Jan 5. taken no more than two days before their departure, to the airline prior to boarding.
Airlines must receive the negative COVID-19 test result, or documentation of a positive test result taken within the prior 10-90 days, before the traveller boards the plane.
To assess the COVID-19 prevalence in various regions of the world, a pilot project on wastewater testing s being put in place by the Public Health Agency of Canada from aircraft with Vancouver International Airport and its expansion with Toronto Pearson International Airport. The samples are then sequenced to monitor for novel variants of concern.
For the identification of COVID-19 variants in Canada, including the Omicron variant of concern and its sub-lineages, most notably through a robust genomic sequencing network and through the monitoring of wastewater in Canadian communities, the Government of Canada has a strong monitoring program in place with the provinces and territories. Positive test samples for genomic sequencing are obtained from domestic provincial, territorial and federal molecular tests from a wide variety of sources to test for emerging variants.
‘While not mandatory, all travellers are strongly recommended to wear well-constructed and well-fitted masks during their travel on planes and in airports, or other crowded indoor settings. Individuals are reminded that they should not travel if they have symptoms of COVID-19. If travellers become sick while travelling, and are still sick when they arrive in Canada, they should inform a flight attendant or a border services officer upon arrival,” a news release said.
Continuing to work with international partners to enhance sequencing capacity, the Government of Canada closely monitors the global epidemiology of COVID-19 and emerging novel variants of concern.
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