Ottawa is funding COVID-19 PCR tests for hundreds of thousands of travellers. Is it worth it?

When David Frid of Gananoque, Ont., received a mandatory government-funded COVID-19 PCR test at Toronto's Pearson airport on Jan. 1, he said it seemed like a waste of money. 

Frid believed the chances of him testing positive were low, because he had already tested negative after taking a pre-departure PCR test in Mexico before flying home. He also argues that testing travellers upon arrival is pointless, because the Omicron variant has already spread across Canada.

"I can't imagine the amount of money and resources that they put into this," said Frid whose arrival test came back negative. "It's a total waste."

Some medical experts also question Ottawa's arrival testing program, arguing that instead of testing thousands of travellers daily, those resources could be better used to help fight the surging Omicron variant on the home front.

Currently, hospitalizations due to COVID-19 in some provinces are climbing to worrisome levels and many symptomatic Canadians can no longer access PCR tests. 

"What's really clear is that COVID is everywhere and that it's not travel that's the major source of spread," said Dr. David Carr, an emergency medicine professor in the Division of Emergency Medicine at the University of Toronto.

"Making people repeat their PCR [test] upon arrival is deflecting resources away from where they could be better spent."

Before arriving in Canada, international travellers have to pay for their own molecular (such as PCR) test and show proof of a negative result.

The tests being questioned now are on top of that, upon arrival. All unvaccinated travellers must take a PCR test when they arrive and those who are fully vaccinated must take one if they're randomly selected. 

Last month, the government began to ramp up testing of fully vaccinated travellers to the point where it now has the capacity to test more than 20,000 arrivals daily.  

Ottawa pays for all arrival tests and has yet to provide a tally for the cost of the program. 

Even though the Omicron variant is surging across Canada, Health Minister Jean-Yves Duclos said on Thursday that the government will continue its commitment to mass-arrival testing. 

"We have the responsibility to make sure that there is as little importation as possible of COVID-19 and Omicron cases across the border," he said at a news conference. 

According to the most recent government data, of the more than 104,596 vaccinated travellers tested after entering Canada over the week of Dec. 19 to Dec. 25, just over two per cent tested positive. Of the more than 19,154 unvaccinated travellers tested that week, three per cent tested positive.