Originally Posted by I_AM_CDN
Originally Posted by CanuckTravlr
Having the "EUA" stamp may not be a problem for Canadians, but that is not the only impediment to having a test on hand before travelling to SXM!! First, at the current time in Ontario you have to have a reason for having a test done, and it doesn't include tourism. Second, many of the test facilities here, as is the case in many US states, cannot seem to turn out a test result within 72 hours, as is required by SXM. So, the problems may be different, but meeting the test requirement is still problematic.


Canuck,
not sure where you have checked testing here in Toronto but I went to the Trillium Hospital for my test (Hurontario location) and I had no problem getting tested just for the heck of being tested. I actually do not recall being asked WHY I wanted one although I had mentioned that I live with a flight attendant who does YYZ to multiple USA destinations e.g. Newark, DC Atlantic Houston. (feel free to use that if you need an excuse)

They said come back in 14 days if I wanted to get another test....I planned to go last week so I could visit my step mom who is in a long care facility in Newmarket but that place now does visits by appointment only and they are booking late Sept now.

Turnaround on the tests was next day, online by 1030AM.

Costs= my time ( I went mid day Sunday, was in and out in 15-20 mins)



Thanks, for that info. Good to know they have improved the testing turn-around. My wife and her sister went to the testing facility in Hamilton in mid-June, in order to be able to visit with their father, who is in a retirement home. They had to make an appointment for the testing, but no wait once they arrived. However, the results were never posted to the government website and they had to call after a week to get the results. No one called them or let them know. Both were negative.

My wife's other sister lives in Ottawa and she and her husband had to wait in line for 4 hours to get tested (no appointments could be arranged...at least at that time). This was early in July, but they had the results in about 4 days. At the time, they were asking why the tests were needed and tourism/travel was not a valid reason. Now that the province has ramped up the testing capacity they may have loosened up the requirement for needing a test.

As a follow-up, my wife and her sister both got letters this past week from Hamilton Public Health apologizing for not getting formal notice of their results!! Apparently there was a screw-up in posting the results on the government website for retrieval, which is why we never found them. That problem has now supposedly been fixed. It looks like the turn-around time may also be fixed, based on your experience at Trillium.