Masks have been mandatory on Air Canada since April and we still see the infections spreading. Air filtering doesn't help when one is exposed to an infected person in an adjacent seat for 1 hour plus. Ask an infectious disease expert if h/she would sit next to an infected passenger. In an ideal world, testing would get rid of some of these people
before they got on the aircraft. Until then, IMO the strategy is to hush up the extent of the problem.
Originally Posted by
Yul_voyager
It is not voluntary, it is mandatory, although it is a self-isolation generally at home so it is possible it is not respected by everyone.
Do you really believe that the majority of travelers are compliant with the regulations? Sure they are mandatory, but there is no enforcement. The karaoke bar incident you referenced was an example of non compliance. Many airline passengers are no different. We saw from the return of travelers in March and April that compliance was poor. The reason why the Canadian government put so many people into government paid isolation facilities is because they knew people were not compliant. The emphasis for testing had its start at that time because it had been hoped that passengers could be tested upon arrival. Testing is just not fast enough and passengers won't accept delays.
The current format of testing will allow for the collection of data to see if the tests even work, but it's a backwards approach to the problem. I am all for testing, but this is smoke and mirrors. The airline industry is trying to get out in front of a crisis that will explode once the general public understands the large number of infections that attach to international flight arrivals. I get it, that it will be impossible to do anything about the domestic flight risk. Testing may help.
The winter international travel season is desperately needed by the airlines so they will use whatever gimmick they can to buy time or to convince the public that flying is safe. We will soon see the suggestion of travel bubbles to designated safe countries, with passengers flown there courtesy of Canadian airlines.
A testing program will support the undertaking.
This forum is a hostile audience when it comes to any hint of a curtailment of flying. Unfortunately, that curtailment on international flights will come if the ineffective screening and isolation enforcement in Canada is not addressed. If you want to see how a proper testing international travel program works, look at Thailand. Mandatory test prior to flight, mandatory 14 day isolation at an approved supervised facility and mandatory testing at the end of the isolation. Canadians won't accept that. The testing should have been initiated months ago. People forget, but the airlines were opposed to testing and other screening measures when they were first suggested. We can thank the airline employee unions for many of the current enhanced hygiene measures and the unions were asking for screening tests months ago.