Toronto Airport (YYZ), Switch Health Testing and Flight Issues - January 3, 2022

[hubbards]

2 minutes ago, Froufie said:

They were chosen to be 'randomly tested' upon their return to Canada....now at home in quarantine awaiting the results of this test!

 

Thank you.  A friend of mine in California told me her mother (96) and sister (60) went for a covid test last Monday because they were both symptomatic.  By Friday no results.  They called and were told there is no record of their test, must have gotten lost.  So they had to start all over.  I hope this is not what happened in this case.

[AlbertaCruisers]

15 minutes ago, hubbards said:

Pardon me if I missed something earlier.  You had your test at the airport for an upcoming fight?  Wouldn’t this delay now disqualify you from flying?

No, we got randomly selected for testing on our way home from the cruise on Monday. Since the cruise was outside of the US we have to quarantine at home until we get a negative test or 14 days. 

[hubbards]

I’m curious if you offered up the info that you were on a cruise, or if they knew.  If you hadn’t said anything you wouldn’t have had to test.

[AlbertaCruisers]

6 minutes ago, hubbards said:

I’m curious if you offered up the info that you were on a cruise, or if they knew.  If you hadn’t said anything you wouldn’t have had to test.

We are Nexus, the custom guy said absolutely nothing, just slapped pink stickers on our Nexus cards and sent us on.  Everyone that came through at the same time as us got pink, we saw no one with green. 
 

I did put in ArriveCan everywhere we had been on the cruise based on the questions asked. I was not comfortable lying in that app. 

[K_e_short]

8 minutes ago, hubbards said:

I’m curious if you offered up the info that you were on a cruise, or if they knew.  If you hadn’t said anything you wouldn’t have had to test.

 

I came back from a cruise on Sunday.

 

I did not lie on my ArriveCan app as thaty would be illegal.

 

The ArriveCan app asks if you have been in another country other then Canada and the U.S. in the last 14 days.

 

Also it is random testing. I came back from a flight from Orlando. People on my flight who had just stayed in Florida were chosen.

 

So lying and saying you weren't in another country won't work.

 

When I searched online it sounded like the government was testing A LOT of travellers last weekend coming from the U.S. and other countries.

[Fouremco]

27 minutes ago, AlbertaCruisers said:

I did put in ArriveCan everywhere we had been on the cruise based on the questions asked. I was not comfortable lying in that app.

Good choice. Legality aside, it would be a sure way of losing your NEXUS privileges. 

[broberts]

1 hour ago, K_e_short said:

When I searched online it sounded like the government was testing A LOT of travellers last weekend coming from the U.S. and other countries.

 

Someone posted that an agent told them they were trying to test 75% of arrivals. It's in one of the several threads in this section.

 

When I read it, I figured it was a joke. Guess not.

[AlbertaCruisers]

19 minutes ago, broberts said:

 

Someone posted that an agent told them they were trying to test 75% of arrivals. It's in one of the several threads in this section.

 

When I read it, I figured it was a joke. Guess not.

 

I think unfortunately for us, when we were in the connections customs there were not many people and not many people in line to be tested in front of us (which was good in that the test line and testing process didn't take us long).  We were near the front of our plane, and as we stood in line, everyone coming out of the customs area had the pink sticker and was sent to our line and the testing line got a lot larger.  I would guess that some people after that point may not have been selected until the line shortened a bit again (but maybe not, who knows).

[K_e_short]

26 minutes ago, broberts said:

 

Someone posted that an agent told them they were trying to test 75% of arrivals. It's in one of the several threads in this section.

 

When I read it, I figured it was a joke. Guess not.

 That was me that posted that 🙂

 

I got out of customs in Ottawa and was one of the first people waiting for luggage (perks of flying business class). There were a lot of staff around. The QR Code to register with Switch Health was there and I asked "any idea how many people are going to get picked like me?" and the response was "we will be picking at least 75% of passengers arriving." (or something like that - it was a long travel day - I don't remember exactly what was said).

 

And to repeat out of the 20 or so people that I chatted with in line, we were the only ones that had been on a cruise. (Yes I'm one of those people that starts randomly talking to you in lines 🙂

 

Edited January 9, 2022 by K_e_short

[netpj]

A question for anyone (at least two people travelling together) who were tested on arrival at Pearson.  If you were all tested at the same time, did you all receive your results at the same time?  We were tested on Friday evening, I received my results this morning, hubby still waiting.

Edited January 9, 2022 by netpj

[AlbertaCruisers]

41 minutes ago, netpj said:

A question for anyone (at least two people travelling together) who were tested on arrival at Pearson.  If you were all tested at the same time, did you all receive your results at the same time?  We were tested on Friday evening, I received my results this morning, hubby still waiting.

 

Wow!! Switch Health is a mess.  Me and my husband tested on Monday at 6:30 pm at Pearson and neither of us have our results yet!

 

I don't think they really care about doing couples together.  Our swabs were all put in a box, and I'm sure they get separated.

[Atlantic Girl]

Just went through Pearson last night after returning from the Allure. They let everybody who had connections off the flight from Florida first. Glad I didn’t listen to the flight attendant that said that we would have plenty of time to get to our connection to Halifax. We pretty much got out in front of everyone off our flight and stayed there and otherwise we wouldn’t have made our connection. The problem was they forced everyone to go to the testing area which sent us out of security. The testing queue was fairly short but filled up really fast behind us. After our really quick swabbing we then had to navigate back through security. Of course we had a water in one of our bags, because we had no idea that we were going to have to do security again. So that got our bags hand searched, plus we had duty free from Florida too. They took the duty free all out , checked the seal and then put the bottles through a machine . Then he had to repackage them in sealed duty bags. All this while the clock ticked down for a possible missed flight. Agonizingly slow. They were searching about 75% of everyone’s bags, I think, because of items that we weren’t supposed to have. Got to the gate with 5 minutes to spare, and did I mention that we had 3 hours between flights! No time for a meal either. Really terrible process. When we arrived in Halifax  they gave us 2 home kits to do also. Allure disembarkation  to our home a total of 23 hours. 

[Fouremco]

22 minutes ago, AlbertaCruisers said:

 

Wow!! Switch Health is a mess.  Me and my husband tested on Monday at 6:30 pm at Pearson and neither of us have our results yet!

 

I don't think they really care about doing couples together.  Our swabs were all put in a box, and I'm sure they get separated.

It would be interesting to know what daily volume of tests Switch Health initially contracted for when taking on the airport arrivals, and what lab facilities and personnel they had at that time. Obviously, with the GOC's massive increase in testing, I'd be very surprised if Switch Health has anywhere near the capacity to handle current volumes. As it is unlikely that testing at this level will continue unabated in the long term, I can't see Switch Health procuring additional lab facilities and equipment now when they may not be needed six months down the road.

 

[netpj]

6 minutes ago, Fouremco said:

It would be interesting to know what daily volume of tests Switch Health initially contracted for when taking on the airport arrivals, and what lab facilities and personnel they had at that time. Obviously, with the GOC's massive increase in testing, I'd be very surprised if Switch Health has anywhere near the capacity to handle current volumes. As it is unlikely that testing at this level will continue unabated in the long term, I can't see Switch Health procuring additional lab facilities and equipment now when they may not be needed six months down the road.

 

Interestingly, my test was processed by a lab in a major downtown teaching hospital.  No idea what the financial arrangements are with Switch Health (if there are any).   I was surprised as I would have thought that hospitals have enough to cope with without processing these types of tests on behalf of Switch Health.  It will be interesting to see if my husband's test was processed by the same lab (when his results arrive).

Edited January 9, 2022 by netpj
addition

[broberts]

5 minutes ago, Fouremco said:

It would be interesting to know what daily volume of tests Switch Health initially contracted for when taking on the airport arrivals, and what lab facilities and personnel they had at that time. Obviously, with the GOC's massive increase in testing, I'd be very surprised if Switch Health has anywhere near the capacity to handle current volumes. As it is unlikely that testing at this level will continue unabated in the long term, I can't see Switch Health procuring additional lab facilities and equipment now when they may not be needed six months down the road.

 

 

I suspect we are going to be living with testing surges for several more years.

 

While I understand the need to use a third party for testing initially, given the last two years experience GOC and the provinces really should be investing in more permanent lab upgrades. I expect the pandemic and its residual will be with us for a decade or more.

 

[Fouremco]

8 minutes ago, Atlantic Girl said:

Just went through Pearson last night after returning from the Allure. They let everybody who had connections off the flight from Florida first. Glad I didn’t listen to the flight attendant that said that we would have plenty of time to get to our connection to Halifax. We pretty much got out in front of everyone off our flight and stayed there and otherwise we wouldn’t have made our connection. The problem was they forced everyone to go to the testing area which sent us out of security. The testing queue was fairly short but filled up really fast behind us. After our really quick swabbing we then had to navigate back through security. Of course we had a water in one of our bags, because we had no idea that we were going to have to do security again. So that got our bags hand searched, plus we had duty free from Florida too. They took the duty free all out , checked the seal and then put the bottles through a machine . Then he had to repackage them in sealed duty bags. All this while the clock ticked down for a possible missed flight. Agonizingly slow. They were searching about 75% of everyone’s bags, I think, because of items that we weren’t supposed to have. Got to the gate with 5 minutes to spare, and did I mention that we had 3 hours between flights! No time for a meal either. Really terrible process. When we arrived in Halifax  they gave us 2 home kits to do also. Allure disembarkation  to our home a total of 23 hours. 

Shaking my head. As I've commented previously, YYZ might be OK for those living in the GTA, but for those of us who transit Pearson when flying from international locations and continuing on to other Canadian cities, it really suffers from poor planning.

 

Just out of curiosity, when you arrived back in Halifax, why were you given home kits to do? AFAIK, there has never been a requirement for COVID testing with domestic flights.

[AlbertaCruisers]

18 minutes ago, Fouremco said:

It would be interesting to know what daily volume of tests Switch Health initially contracted for when taking on the airport arrivals, and what lab facilities and personnel they had at that time. Obviously, with the GOC's massive increase in testing, I'd be very surprised if Switch Health has anywhere near the capacity to handle current volumes. As it is unlikely that testing at this level will continue unabated in the long term, I can't see Switch Health procuring additional lab facilities and equipment now when they may not be needed six months down the road.

 

 

I'm just annoyed there is not some way for them to make sure it is done in order.  Someone getting their results from Friday while we still wait makes me mad.  I asked them and they said it is based on the lab it is sent to.

We just got my husband's result - negative - and waiting on mine.  His result shows a Bio-Test Lab at 2006 Robertson Road, Nepean.

[AlbertaCruisers]

27 minutes ago, Atlantic Girl said:

Just went through Pearson last night after returning from the Allure. They let everybody who had connections off the flight from Florida first. Glad I didn’t listen to the flight attendant that said that we would have plenty of time to get to our connection to Halifax. We pretty much got out in front of everyone off our flight and stayed there and otherwise we wouldn’t have made our connection. The problem was they forced everyone to go to the testing area which sent us out of security. The testing queue was fairly short but filled up really fast behind us. After our really quick swabbing we then had to navigate back through security. Of course we had a water in one of our bags, because we had no idea that we were going to have to do security again. So that got our bags hand searched, plus we had duty free from Florida too. They took the duty free all out , checked the seal and then put the bottles through a machine . Then he had to repackage them in sealed duty bags. All this while the clock ticked down for a possible missed flight. Agonizingly slow. They were searching about 75% of everyone’s bags, I think, because of items that we weren’t supposed to have. Got to the gate with 5 minutes to spare, and did I mention that we had 3 hours between flights! No time for a meal either. Really terrible process. When we arrived in Halifax  they gave us 2 home kits to do also. Allure disembarkation  to our home a total of 23 hours. 

 

That is weird, we went through Pearson on Monday and we were tested and did not have to go out of the secured area or do security again.  We were on Air Canada.  The testing area for that terminal is outside of the connecting customs area and then you just walk to the gate area.

[Fouremco]

13 minutes ago, netpj said:

Interestingly, my test was processed by a lab in a major downtown teaching hospital.  No idea what the financial arrangements are with Switch Health (if there are any).   I was surprised as I would have thought that hospitals have enough to cope with without processing these types of tests on behalf of Switch Health.  It will be interesting to see if my husband's test was processed by the same lab (when his results arrive).

I'm equally surprised. We are being told that PCR testing is extremely limited these days, in large part because of the labs being overwhelmed. Maybe Switch Health sub-contracted some of its testing before Omicron and the skyrocketing volumes?  

[Fouremco]

5 minutes ago, AlbertaCruisers said:

 

I'm just annoyed there is not some way for them to make sure it is done in order.  Someone getting their results from Friday while we still wait makes me mad.  I asked them and they said it is based on the lab it is sent to.

We just got my husband's result - negative - and waiting on mine.  His result shows a Bio-Test Lab at 2006 Robertson Road, Nepean.

So, they sent his to an Ottawa lab. Maybe yours went to Vancouver! 🙄

[Fouremco]

12 minutes ago, broberts said:

 

I suspect we are going to be living with testing surges for several more years.

 

While I understand the need to use a third party for testing initially, given the last two years experience GOC and the provinces really should be investing in more permanent lab upgrades. I expect the pandemic and its residual will be with us for a decade or more.

 

I'm not sure that testing surges at this level will continue for several more years, but I certainly agree that there's a need for increased and upgraded lab facilities. I believe that this was just another element of pandemic preparedness that both the federal and provincial governments let slip over the years, just as they failed to maintain the infrastructure for vaccine production.

[FawnRiver]

1 hour ago, AlbertaCruisers said:

 

Wow!! Switch Health is a mess.  Me and my husband tested on Monday at 6:30 pm at Pearson and neither of us have our results yet!

 

I don't think they really care about doing couples together.  Our swabs were all put in a box, and I'm sure they get separated.

A little disappointing to hear Switch Health is in over its head with testing. I know they’re out of their league with doing vaccinations so it’s not a huge surprise. DH and I managed to get booster appointments for Christmas Eve at the International Centre and it was a real disaster. Despite having verified appointments, there were still long lines and they kept letting walk ins go ahead of those of us who had appointments. Our two original vaccination appointments were handled by Toronto Public Health and they were surprisingly efficient in contrast.

 

Hopefully things will straighten out before our February cruise, assuming Ottawa allows us commoners to still travel.

[K_e_short]

Going to chime in here with some politics for a lovely snowy Sunday morning 🙂

 

Switch Health is making a lot of money off Covid.

 

They have contracts to do airport testing. They have contracts to do regular pcr testing. They have contracts to do vaccination clinics.

If you search online you will see quite a lot of negative comments.

 

There is anger that pcr tests from travellers are being processed before pcr tests for health care providers who can't get back to work until they get results.

There is anger that the government is pushing for Switch Health vaccine clinics when the PHU clinics have space.

 

This just emphasizes that the system is broken.

 

And I'm allowed to say this since I just got back from a cruise - the system doesn't restrict people from traveling. All it does is create more hoops to jump through. Jumping through the hoops doesn't make things safer. It's all optics.

 

[DirtyDawg]

4 hours ago, K_e_short said:

Going to chime in here with some politics for a lovely snowy Sunday morning 🙂

 

Switch Health is making a lot of money off Covid.

 

They have contracts to do airport testing. They have contracts to do regular pcr testing. They have contracts to do vaccination clinics.

If you search online you will see quite a lot of negative comments.

 

There is anger that pcr tests from travellers are being processed before pcr tests for health care providers who can't get back to work until they get results.

There is anger that the government is pushing for Switch Health vaccine clinics when the PHU clinics have space.

 

This just emphasizes that the system is broken.

 

And I'm allowed to say this since I just got back from a cruise - the system doesn't restrict people from traveling. All it does is create more hoops to jump through. Jumping through the hoops doesn't make things safer. It's all optics.

 

Switch Health is making a lot of money off Covid.

Good for them. They look like a group of nice smart young Canadian Entrepreneurs. Maybe they will be able to build their own rocket ships just like another older entrepreneur did who is making lot of money off  of Covid.  

 

Is the system broken? Can a system be broken if it was never really finished being built in the first place? 

 

We are sill waiting for our PCR test results which we will hopefully get on Monday. If we get the results or not, it will not change our plans much  for the next few days anyways. We have no plans to go food shopping, it gets delivered. A wine club order is on it's way.  And Rocket man's company delivers anything else we might need. Both of us will work from home this week just like we have have for most of the last two years. The only differences might be that we don't get our furnace repaired for a few extra days (it broke at some point when we were away), the dog walker would get some extra work and the cleaning ladies would not be able to  come. (And believe me, our place needs it after our son  spent a week here alone while we were away! 🤯) So if we have to wait longer than 72 hours for our results we will just chill (figuratively and literally 🥶).

 

Another thing. Why does anyone care where the PCR tests are processed? My car came from Japan. My iPhone from China.  I have jeans made in Bangladesh and shirts from Vietnam.  So what if a PCR test is processed in Nepean, or Vancouver, or Medicine Hat (OK, ok some might might prefer the lab in Medicine Hat 😉) 

 

 

 

Edited January 9, 2022 by DirtyDawg

[AlbertaCruisers]

I don't think anyone cares about the lab location, it is just interesting.  People who were tested Friday got one of their results today, from a lab in Toronto.  We got tested on Monday, looks like our tests were flew to Ottawa, my husband got his result today (after approximately 134 hours) and I'm still waiting - I will be at 6 days waiting in 2 hours.