The Canadian Travel and Tourism Roundtable is calling on the federal government to redeploy PCR tests used for on-arrival testing to community use, and return to randomized on-arrival testing for surveillance purposes.
On December 17, the federal government announced additional measures to contain the spread of the Omicron variant.
They included the increase of on-arrival PCR testing for travellers arriving from destinations other than the United States and isolation until test results are received, despite all travellers being fully vaccinated, asymptomatic and having just received a negative PCR test in the last 72 hours.
The Roundtable is a coalition of leaders in the Canadian tourism and travel sector, including representatives from airports, airlines, hotels, and chambers of commerce across the country.
"The redundant testing requirement was introduced at a time of a shortage of such tests for use in community testing," the group said in a press release.
"These measures were designed to keep Omicron out of Canada. Now that Omicron has made its way into Canadian communities, it is important we shift policies to reflect the realities of the current COVID-19 situation."
The group points out that the positivity rate of fully vaccinated travellers entering Canada on a relative basis is extremely low when contrasted against the significantly higher positive rate in the community.
"This is because the arrivals test effectively re-tests COVID-negative travellers. The government should consider shifting back to arrival testing on a random basis for surveillance purposes," the Roundtable statement added.
The group says it understands the severity and complexity of the Omicron COVID-19 variant, but temporary measures should be updated by shifting to a program of randomized testing of travellers which will continue to provide data on COVID-19.
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