CBC explains how it will work. It seems like the government has managed to find a way to make a bad thing even worse. I guess there’s a chance that returning travelers will have to go to a local pharmacy to get tested—rather an inconvenience. Also, 15 minutes after going through customs I’m often already in a cab down the 401, so even if there is an option to grab a kit at the airport, I may miss it.

Snippets:

I think I read you can request a home test to be sent to your address? That's what I was hoping.

Does this apply to all International arrivals or just Canadian citizens returning back? I'm supposed to fly up to Vancouver for a night from California then fly on to South America the next day. Not sure how I would do this test if selected since I won't have a car to get to these testing locations.

You would be fine since you are leaving the country.

Question: what happens if you don’t travel with a device that can access emails and you get selected?

Same. I'm making a quick trip (in Thursday out Saturday), will not have a car or a cell without wifi.
Even if I can get a test, I would never get resutls back before I leave to come home.

Anyone been through Winnipeg?

Making bad things worse is one of the few things governments are good at. :D

I am going to ORD via YYZ from YOW on Wed, coming back on Saturday.

Does the government still exempt people who had recent covid from being selection for this later version of random airport off-site covid testing?
I had a covid infection less than 3 months ago.

What is the maximal time interval from the date of the covid infection that one is exempt from covid testing?
6 months?

Do I upload the proof of the covid infection to the Arrive Can app?
My proof is a positive pcr test from ON Dept of Health.

If you are flying direct to Winnipeg you’ll be fine. The program isn’t in place there. If you are connecting through another airport you may get selected.

This week I'm flying US-YYC-FCO. This won't apply to me since I'm not entering Canada, correct?

Also, what is the mask policy like now onboard and in the airports? A few weeks back I flew CLT-YUL on AA and none of the FAs had on masks, but told us we needed to wear them in the airport. After we landed we saw many other FAs without masks and they told us that the mandate had been dropped. We went through passport control without masks and nobody said a word to us. Is this still the case?
Thanks for the help!

Is the proof of infection uploaded onto the Arrive Can app?

I flew into YYZ, got a green sticker, and then went on my merry way. Three days later I get an SMS that I had been selected for "random" testing. By then I was already back in the US. I replied with that info, and that was the end of the matter (I hope). It's rather ferkakte. If I was selected for testing, why didn't I get a pink sticker? The previous time, my wife was selected, given a pink sticker, and did her test right at arrivals in YTZ.

Sounds like the percentage who are selected is quite high then? ​​​​

5% I believe.

Our trip is not until December - so I know a lot can change but just checking we are flying LAS-YUL (2 days)-VIE. If we get randomly picked and then test positive I realize we'll have to isolate for 48 hours, but will they let us leave?

It does have this on the current website, but not sure if that is still applicable under the current random test thing. I actually wish we had done a Molecular test because both of us just tested positive but now my husband is already testing negative so assuming that is too late as then we would have fallen under the 180-day recovery exception to random testing.

At this point it’s probably 50/50 whether you’d have your results within 2 days. But in theory you would not be allowed to leave because you’d be told to go to isolation for 10 days (not 48 hours). That said, no one at the airport would know you had tested positive as that’s not information shared with the airline or US customs.

You may always exit Canada. They are trying to protect any virus from spreading within Canada. They don’t care if you exit Canada.

https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...0eff863c3.jpeg

Hang on, I thought there was a 10 day quarantine if you tested positive? But if you were already due to leave the country before the ten days, you can?

So if I’m only due to stay for five days before flying back to the UK, but I test positive, I can still leave on the fifth day?

Why would Canada force someone to stay in Canada against their will? The objective is to prevent disease from entering and spreading within Canada. These rules are primarily geared to Cdn. residents. Not visitors.

So supposedly email saying you’ve been selected within 15 minutes. Then how long do you have to actually take the test? And until you do you’re free to run around and do what you want? If it’s by end of next day as it is for current unvaccinated and a PCR test it would be at least 3 or 4 days until results? By that time folks will have already spread and/or possibly left Canada??

The thing is Air Canada asks whether you’re currently under a mandatory quarantine order, so you’d have to answer “no” to that. It also asks whether you’ve had COVID in the past 10 days. I’m assuming WestJet is the same.

We both had PCR tests and I had my fingers crossed we’d still have positive results, which we did. I know weird but since we had COVID figure may as well try and get this 180 free exemption pass from random testing. So looks like we’ll be all good. Unless of course they change the rules again.

Damn, I guess I should peel off the green stickers I was saving to show to the sticker checkers on the way out

That was such a good system :D
They never noticed the pink ones, just the old green ones for some reason......

So....arrive at YYZ from LAS on July 28 and am then flying to MNL on early July 30th. If I test on the 29th and don't get my results until the 30th, what do I do ?

You don't need to isolate after taking a test.

No. AFAIK there is no clear procedure to provide the proof of recovery. In fact, the system seemed to completely ignore that exemption, and did not provide any avenue to provide the proof. So you’re stuck with trying to contact the PHAC if you’re selected, to explain that you’re exempt. And it’s almost impossible to get in touch with them and talk to a real person.

Well, not quite.

https://travel.gc.ca/travel-covid/tr...tion#isolation

Isolating after a positive test result on arrival or Day-8 If you receive a positive arrival or Day-8 COVID-19 molecular test result from a test required by the Government of Canada, you must report to the Public Health Agency of Canada within 24 hours by calling 1-833-641-0343 and isolate immediately. This applies to any federal government-required test that you were selected to complete, including a mandatory random test.

Your isolation period ends after the 10th day from the day on which you took the test.

Federal rules for quarantine and isolation after entering Canada are different from the provincial or territorial rules. In this case, you must follow the stricter rules.

For example, if you must isolate after testing positive on your arrival molecular COVID-19 test that was provided to you at the border, you must stay in mandatory isolation for 10 days, even if your province only requires 5 days of isolation.



If you want to leave Canada, you cannot board a plane to do so.


If you leave Canada during your isolation period

You’ll need permission from a Quarantine Officer to leave Canada during your isolation period.

Send a request to leave Canada

You won't be able to take public transportation. You must depart using private transportation only, such as your private vehicle. You won't be able to board a flight to depart Canada. You must also comply with all regulations for the country of destination.

You must:

• wear a respirator or mask
• practice physical distancing at all times, where possible
• avoid contact with others while in transit
  • remain in the vehicle
  • do not stay at a hotel on the way to your new destination
  • if you need gas, pay at the pump
  • if you need food, use a drive through
  • if you need to use a rest area, put on your mask and be mindful of physical distancing and good hygiene practices
  • If you're in a federal designated quarantine facility, you must get authorization from a quarantine officer to leave.

If you test positive, ignore the rules, and arrive at the airport to depart the country, who is going to stop you from boarding the airplane? Would the person at the check-in have it on their system that you should currently be isolating?

Since restart of the random tests you'll get an e-mail if you're selected if I understand it correctly. What if you never get that mail because it's stuck / deleted by your spam-filter? Is there a known sender's address for these mails? Will they fall back to calling you and will you have a chance to explain or is it just a robocall?

Glad if someone who was unfortunate enough of being selected since July 19, 2022 could report how the procedure unfolds.

Can some explain how this works for connections with a stopover? I’m arriving late one evening in YYZ and departing early the following morning (all on same PNR, but 2 different carriers). What happens if I get selected and test positive in the evening? Can I take my flight in the morning?

I entered the country today, around an hour ago (after around a 30 minute wait at YUL, no Nexus in the domestic connections area, and massive lines).

No email so I’m assuming I’m good.

I’m really not sure how they plan to operationalize this for those with connections to distant parts of the country - unless the expectation is that they pick up virtual test kits before leaving the initial airport of entry.

Results take a couple of days, so you will be fine.

I have found this:

https://www.routesonline.com/news/29...ng-passengers/

Contradictory to a press release cited in posts #31 and #41, it says:

Passengers flying to Canada must download the ArriveCAN app 72 hours before departure. Once a passenger clears customs, he or she will get a message sent to the app within 15 minutes letting them know they have been randomly selected for testing. The app will help passengers find a testing site and book an appointment

IMHO this sounds much more serious than the old testing-regime they had before the tests were paused. You can hardly pretend you didn't get the notification in the ArriveCAN app when the app was necessary to make it into Canada at all. It worked that far, and then, all of a sudden, the app has allegedly failed once you've been selected for the test? No one will believe that. It seems they've learnt their lesson.

That's different from what the official site says (which is also different from what the initial news reports said):Note: they say that most travelers should receive their results within 4 days.

To be honest, a notification in the app makes more sense to me, as with e-mails there's a higher possibility something goes wrong. Did I mention spam-filters already?

However, test results within 4 days is what makes this entire testing absurd. 4 days during I may happily infect everyone. Yeah, sure, that's protecting Canada from the the spread of Covid-19, I fully agree... NOT!

Does someone know how it works with isolation for a tourist? A resident of Canada may isolates at home. But a tourist? When you first have 2 days to take the test and then it may takes up to 4 days 'till you get a positive result, it's hard to guess where exactly you'd be at that time, particularly if you're on a road-trip. Maybe not at the address (anymore) you put in ArriveCAN. Imagine you're staying in a quite expensive hotel at the time you learn you've tested positive. Are you supposed to stay in that very hotel for another 10 days from that time on? What if the hotel hasn't availability for the entire time of your isolation? Is it permitted to change to a (maybe cheaper) place to sit out the period of isolation? To me this is a different story than to have a place for a mandatory quarantine period right after entering Canada (as for the unvaccinated). There you know you'll have to quarantine and can organize a place to do so in time.

And do you have to notify the authorities by phone or mail about where you isolate, particularly if the place is different from the one you put in ArriveCAN?

If I'm in the country for four days, wait until close to the end of the second day to take a test, and then wait another four days to get the test results back... I could already be sitting back at home. Then the alert comes through that I've tested positive. Okay, Canada, what do you want me to do? Fly back to isolate?

END THIS MADNESS!

The random testing is mostly to monitor potential new variants. Not justifying it but that is the main reason why they chose to bring it back.

Then why have they included a mandatory quarantine if you test positive that specifically says it overrules any provincial quarantine rules? Feels pretty obviously punative to me.

While trying to monitor potential new variants is an admirable task, the fact that 95% of passengers can go unchecked while the remaining 5% get tested but potentially spread the disease while awaiting test results just doesn't make sense. To me anyway. If they want to track new variants, then surely they should be testing absolutely everyone who arrives and make them quarantine until their results return back negative. Otherwise the whole thing just feels... pointless.