Alberta to pilot COVID-19 testing at border that could shorten quarantine time

Travellers entering Canada by land or air through Alberta will soon have the option of being tested for COVID-19 at the border in a pilot project that could shorten quarantine times and is the first of its kind in Canada, Premier Jason Kenney announced Thursday.

The mandatory quarantine period for returning international travellers will be maintained for now. But the 14-dayself-isolation period could be shortened to about 48 hoursif a traveller receives a negative COVID-19 test result at one of two border crossings in the province.

Ifthe test comes back negative, travellerswillbe allowed to leave their place of quarantine as long as they remain in Alberta for the first 14 days and commit to getting a second test on Day 6or 7after arrival, at a community pharmacy participating in the pilot program, the province said.

They may be ticketed if they fail to respect the public health requirements of the pilot.

It will be available for foreign essential workers truckers, health-care workers and other workers who are exempt from the current federal travel ban and any Canadian citizens orpermanent residents who are currently allowed entry into Canada and have no COVID-19 symptoms.

All travellers who choose not toparticipate in the pilot will have to abide by the normal14-day quarantine.

"We simply must move forward to developpolicies to facilitate safe travel," Kenneysaid during a news conference Thursday, calling it an important day.

"Though a lot of work lies ahead, we can see a return to normal travel."

Kenney was speaking from his home in Edmonton, where he is in self-isolation after one of his government ministers tested positive for COVID-19 a day earlier.Kenney tested negative Wednesday night but said he'dcontinue with the isolation perioduntil Oct. 29.

Expected to start Nov. 2, the new COVID-19 testing option will be offeredat the Coutts land border crossing in southern Albertaand the Calgary International Airport.

Welcome news for traveller

It was welcome news forJuan Lopez, arriving on a mostly empty plane into Calgary on Thursday.Lopez hasn't seen his wife who lives in Calgary since the pandemic began.

"That would be awesome because I am coming from Texas to see my wife, and I have to quarantine for 14 days. And then I have a couple of days, and I have to fly home and go back to work," Lopez said.

News of the pilot project came as, for a second consecutive day,Alberta broketwo COVID-19 recordsfor both new cases and active casesreporting427 new cases and a total of 3,519 active cases of the illness.

The voluntary screening option is a joint pilot project between the Province of Alberta and the Government of Canada.

"Our twin goal here is protecting both lives and livelihoods, and that is especially important in Alberta with the depth of the energy price collapse and its economic impact," Kenney said.

But as federal Health Minister Patty Hajdu pointed out, the pilot program only applies to Canadian residents and foreign nationals who are already allowed to come to Canada.

"There are no changes now at the border to be clear," Hajdu said. "And so this is a controlled study with a willing province that has the tools and the capacity to be able to manage the study."

Participants will be closely monitored through daily symptomschecks and be required to follow enhanced preventive health measures, such as wearing masks in public places and avoiding visiting high-risk groups.

Dr.Joe Vipond, a ER physician in Calgary and organizerwith the Alberta chapter of theMasks4Canadaadvocacy group, likes the idea of using tests to shorten quarantine periods for people flying to Calgary.

But he is less excited about the program being used at the Canada-U.S. land border.

"The U.S. rates are ridiculous, and they just aren't putting in safe precautions," he said. "So they are a higher risk population than those that would be arriving from other areas at Calgary."

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Could expand to Edmonton

Kenney said if the traveller pilot project goes well, it will be expanded to the airport in Edmonton early in the new year.There was no word on when it could be in place in the rest of Canada.

"This is an announcement that I have been waiting for, and that we have all been waiting for, for months," said Calgary Airport Authority presidentBob Sartor.

"This innovative, government-approved, science-based testing trial for international arriving guests is the lifeline that airports and airline partners need to instill confidence in air travel once again."

The pilot was also hailed by Calgary-based airline WestJet.

"Today's announcement is actually the first piece of good news we have received as an airline since February 29th, when I sat on a Sunday afternoon watching our bookings get outstripped by cancellations and eventually fall by up to 95 per cent," said WestJet CEO Ed Sims.

Record-breakers

Alberta hit a new record for the most new cases in a single day on Wednesday, at406, and repeated that on Thursday with 427 new cases.The previous single-day record for reported new cases was 356 on Oct.18. During the first wave of the pandemic, the province hit 351 new cases on April 23.

The province also broke the recordfor the most active cases with3,372 active caseson Wednesday, and again on Thursday with3,519.

The previous record was set Tuesday, with 3,203.

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The government announced that Municipal Affairs Minister Tracy Allard tested positive on Wednesday afternoon and was experiencing mild symptoms.

Apart from Kenney,Transportation MinisterRic McIverand United Conservative PartyMLAs Angela Pitt, Peter Guthrieand Nathan Neudorff are also self-isolating because theyhad interactions with Allard last week, the statement said, though they are not showing symptoms.

Kenney said Thursday that despite therecord numbers of COVID-19 cases, theAlberta government has no plans to impose "indiscriminate" restrictions that would shut down the hospitality industry.

He said the province has been "very successful" atmaintaining the least-stringent public restrictionswhile still managing to have some of thebest results in the Western world.

Concerns have been growing in recent days surrounding Alberta's south health zone, which has seen its number of active cases jump more than six-fold since the beginning of the month.

• 6-fold spike in COVID-19 infection in southern Alberta 'very concerning,' says Lethbridge mayor