Travelers arriving in Vancouver from Hong Kong said they were among the last to arrive before Canada’s new COVID-19 testing requirements took effect, including one woman who changed her flight to avoid the rules.
Starting Thursday at 12:01 a.m. ET, Canada will require travelers from China, Hong Kong or Macau to provide proof of a negative PCR or antigen test within two days of departure.
The new measure, which has been in place for 30 days, is a response to the surge in the virus in China and the limited epidemiological and other data available, the Public Health Agency of Canada said Saturday.
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Penny Tao was aboard a Cathay Pacific flight that landed around 11:30 a.m. Wednesday.
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Another Cathay flight was delayed and was expected to arrive at 21:02 local time, just after the rules were due to take effect.
Tao said she planned to visit Canada for Chinese New Year, which falls on Jan. 22, but when she found out about the upcoming testing rules, she switched to an earlier flight. She said her schedule was too busy to arrange a test.
“I don’t have enough time because the new year is coming up,” said Tao, who plans to tour Vancouver and elsewhere with his longtime friend in the next few months.
2:07 The medical community is questioning the purpose of China-specific travel measures against COVID-19
Another passenger on the flight said he felt lucky to be able to return to Vancouver without providing test results.
The Canadian citizen, who is returning after more than 20 years working in Hong Kong, asked not to be identified for safety reasons, saying he otherwise felt uncomfortable talking about the situation in China and Hong Kong. He said the COVID-19 situation is not as severe in Hong Kong as in mainland China, where the sudden lifting of pandemic restrictions has led to a surge in cases.
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“I think I’m the last one to come back to Canada among my friends, most of my friends came back (to Vancouver) over two years ago. I’m the last one,” said the former British Columbia Institute of Technology student.
He said he wanted to “drink tea and play mahjong together” with his friends.
Read more: Canada’s COVID travel rules for China won’t stop spread of new variants: experts
Hong Kong resident Larry Cui carried a negative COVID test in case he was asked to provide it. Until he arrived, he didn’t realize he had landed before the rules started.
“I didn’t know that. I actually took the test yesterday before I got on the plane in case the Canadian officers asked me to,” Cui said.
Meanwhile, in Shanghai, Jiayuan Jin was preparing to fly to Vancouver and be among the first to arrive under the new testing regime.
The Canadian resident is a third-year student at the University of British Columbia studying economics. But she has been in China since the early days of the 2020 pandemic, studying remotely at UBC and then as an exchange student at a university in Shanghai.
She was due to arrive in Vancouver on January 7, two days before the term began.
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2:15 Travelers from China will require negative tests for COVID-19
Jin said in an interview in Mandarin that he plans to take a PCR test before uploading. She said she was confident the test was negative.
She said she supports the new testing rule in Canada as a way to protect everyone and the process of getting a COVID-19 test in China is convenient.
“It’s easy to book a COVID-19 test. For example, in Shanghai, I will come across a COVID-19 testing booth every 200 meters and within 10 hours I can get results,” Jin said.
“People who are unwell and have COVID-19 will not be able to enter Canada. But people who are free of COVID can come back to visit their families and continue their lives here.”
Read more: Canada to require COVID-19 testing for flights from China as virus grows
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The Chinese government has criticized the testing requirements imposed on travelers from China and threatened countermeasures against the countries involved, including the US and several European countries.
“We believe that the entry restrictions adopted by some countries targeting China have no scientific basis, and some excessive practices are even more unacceptable,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Mao Ning said at a daily briefing on Tuesday.
“We are firmly against attempts to manipulate the measures against COVID for political purposes and will take countermeasures based on the principle of reciprocity,” she said.
This story was produced with the financial assistance of Meta and the Canadian Press News Fellowship.
– With files from the Associated Press
© 2023 The Canadian Press
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