Please note that off topic wider virus matters have been edit from several posts so let's please confine the discussion to this AC test.

tcook052
AC forum moderator

I am arriving internationally to YYZ however it is via YUL. So I will be clearing customs in YUL and catching a domestic flight to Toronto. Would I qualify? I’m sure the screening at YYZ will be in the separate international arrivals area, but just want to confirm. I’d really like to participate. My CDG to YYZ flight got cancelled, so have no choice but to connect through Montreal.

Please can you write to your MP and copy various ministers about your experience. We need the government to change the policies to incorporate testing on arrival.

... and while we're at it get somebody to shove a hot poker up Health Canada's backside who seem 100% fixated on PCR testing and refuse to approve blood and saliva tests that can give results in 15-30 minutes.

reading a couple more articles on this volunteer GTAA study really gives me the impression that really hope to get data from healthy people, uninfected, to show that the 14 day quarantine could be lifted.

​​​​One flaw is that I think those volunteering for a test or vaccine tends to end up with a majority of people who have a heightened sense of awareness of covid news and who are already taking more precautions, rather than testing a random mix of the general public

The non believers who just dial it in and rip masks off when they step off the plane or nobody is looking are not going to be the ones volunteering for this post-airport arrival test. Yet, that is the group statistically more likely to be infected or incubating an upcoming infection.

That was kinda my point wayyy upthread. This is self-selection.

Now the motivation behind the traveler participating could be everything from simply reducing hassle to hypochondria, but your hypothesis about these people likely being more cautious in general sounds valid to me.

I just did it earlier today arriving from CUN. I registered on my phone upon landing and the whole process was fairly seamless: showing the guy the SMS confirmation, click into the link and enter the covid kit code, bring the kit to a booth, self-administered test with someone guiding you, done and bring 2 more kits home. Fingers crossed it will be negative lol

I got a survey from Ekos yesterday.
It was asking what I thought about reducing the 14 day quarantine.
Would I support reducing/eliminating the quarantine if there was rapid testing on arrival.
There were some comparisons made to Germany and the "success" they've had opening their borders.

Not sure if the survey was sponsored by the government or an airline.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/business/air...-kit-1.5745976

Air Canada has ordered 25,000 testing kits that can detect COVID-19 in someone in as little as five minutes, a key hurdle for an industry that's desperately trying to make it safe and possible for travellers to fly again.

The first batch of tests will be for employee volunteers, now that the devices by Abbott Laboratories have been approved for use in Canada by federal health and safety authorities, the airline said Thursday.

"five minutes"



And that's "about" 13 minutes. So I expect these are the standard 15 minute tests.

What I find more interesting is the testing on arrrival:

So only 20% of the eventual-positives were not caught immediately, and they were all caught after 7 (not 14) days.

Granted, this is a self-selecting set of people who clearly treat the virus more seriously, but if these results hold up to more scrutiny, AC will have data (as opposed to general fear-mongering) to lean on the government.

That's not good. It won't be seen as <1%. It will be seen as "hundreds of cases" to keep the fear mongering and quarantine in place

​​​​​​So for this limited 13k case study, 1% likely means ~100 tested positive immediately and ~25 were undetected. (If it was half a percent I think they'd have said so to paint a better picture).

"Missing" 2/10ths of a percent is about one person per AC HD widebody. Even catching 8/10ths of a percent is about 4 people per flight.

I assume a normal YYZ arrival day is 10x? 20x? higher than 13k, so there are your hundreds of missed cases and thousands of rapid test positive arrivals will then be using what type of transportation to their quarantine home?

The initial missed 2/10th of a percent could be from exposure that occurred on the flight or at an airport. That may portray a safer not to travel argument.

To test everyone at YYZ would a monumental workload with hours of bottlenecks for arriving passengers. I've been at YYZ during peak arrival time to see the customs arrivals hall backed up all the way to the escalators, causing a hazard requiring the emergency stop button to be used. Then throw in some extra widebody diversions from other cities due to winter weather....
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It might not be that big a deal given the low numbers of people travelling now.

Either way I'd prefer to endure an airport bottleneck followed by a brief quarantine than a fast trip through the airport before a 14 day quarantine.

I'd rather AC make it mandatory pre-flight even if the only benefit is less chance of infection between the check-in counter and baggage claim.

I'd welcome that as it would add to peace of mind about the flight itself, but I can't see it being viewed as an acceptable substitute for quarantine on arrival. A post arrival test would probably still be required.