As officials at Pearson airport ask air passengers to self-report if they’re experiencing symptoms of COVID-19, federal health authorities say there’s no need for additional measures like taking the temperature of travellers coming from countries hit hard by the virus.

Along with other airports across the country, the Greater Toronto Airport Authority (GTAA), which oversees Pearson, has instituted protocols to fight the spread of the deadly disease, which on Wednesday was declared a pandemic by the World Health Organization.

A statement on the GTAA website says the agency is “working closely” with the Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC) and the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA), and “the safety of our passengers is our top priority.”

A spokesperson for the GTAA referred the Star’s questions about passenger screening to the two federal agencies, which are responsible for co-ordinating Pearson’s response to COVID-19.

Louis-Carl Brissette Lesage, spokesperson for the CBSA, said the agency was working closely with PHAC and since Feb. 9 has been using enhanced screening measures at all international airports in Canada in order to “identify and effectively screen” travellers who have visited regions impacted by COVID-19 within the past 14 days, as well as passengers “who feel or appear unwell with symptoms consistent” with the virus.

He said the border agency “uses a risk-based approach when processing travellers” and while “currently travellers who have visited only certain countries are subject to enhanced screening measures,” officers “use discretionary questioning techniques” to determine whether or not any traveller may be sick or potentially transmitting COVID-19.

Brissette Lesage said the agency was also working to identify passengers who have been in affected areas like aboard cruise ships, “to ensure that they are screened in accordance with enhanced measures determined by PHAC.”

According to PHAC, similar special measures have been instituted at Pearson and nine other international airports across the country, including those in Vancouver, Montreal, Calgary, Ottawa, and at Billy Bishop Toronto City Airport.

Signage has been erected in French and English asking travellers to alert border officers if they have flu-like symptoms.

An additional question, available in 15 languages, has been added to electronic kiosks for all international travellers asking if they have travelled from Iran, Italy, or Hubei, China, regions that are dealing with widespread outbreaks of the virus.

Passengers coming from those areas who don’t show symptoms will be required to provide authorities with their contact information and receive a handout advising them to limit contact with other people for 14 days. They’ll also be given a surgical mask and instructions on how to use it should they begin to experience symptoms.

Jessica Pellerin, a spokesperson for Ports Toronto, which owns and operates Billy Bishop, said for the past few weeks the airport “has been operating under a heightened protocol for cleaning and disinfecting common areas and surfaces.”

“This is combined with additional precautions and procedures to address the concern, and briefings from Toronto Public Health and the Public Health Agency of Canada ... to ensure best practices are followed.”

According to the GTAA’s website, the agency has been cleaning arrival areas more frequently, and installed more hand sanitizer stations.

At Pearson as well as international airports in Montreal and Vancouver, PHAC has also set up information booths with health staff ready to advise passengers.

PHAC spokesperson Anna Madison said in a written statement these measures “complement routine traveller screening procedures already in place to prepare for, detect and respond to the spread of serious infectious diseases.”

“In general, when a traveller shows signs of an infectious disease upon arrival in Canada, border services officers or airport and airline staff contact a PHAC quarantine officer,” who then conducts a more detailed assessment. The officers have the authority to order a passenger be hospitalized.

While thermal testing — taking people’s temperature — has become commonplace in some countries grappling with the outbreak, including China and South Korea, Madison suggested it was not necessary at Canadian airports.

She said during the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) outbreak in 2003, 2.3 million travellers at Canadian airports were screened using thermal tests.

“Despite this intensive screening effort, no cases of SARS were detected using these methods,” she said.

Madison added that based on past experience, the Canadian government is confident passengers coming through Pearson will heed advice to self-report symptoms and self-isolate if necessary.

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“Based on what we have learned so far from this and previous infectious disease outbreaks (e.g., SARS, Ebola), returning travellers from affected areas follow public health advice and often go over and above the precautionary measures,” she said.

Under normal circumstances, Friday would be the busiest day of March Break travel. According to GTAA spokesperson Beverly MacDonald, Pearson had been projecting 144,000 passengers to come through the airport that day, but the number is now expected to be lower “in light of the ongoing changes to travel patterns and restrictions.”

According to Metrolinx, the provincial transit agency that operates the UP Express service connecting Pearson to Union Station downtown, the airport train hasn’t been singled out for any additional anti-COVID-19 measures compared to the rest of the regional GO Transit network.

But Metrolinx spokesperson Anne Marie Aikins said UP Express vehicles along with GO buses servicing the airport were the first the agency treated with a long-acting antimicrobial agent. Metrolinx plans to apply the agent to the remainder of the GO fleet within the next two weeks.

“Public health officials have continued to say the risk is low and the public should continue to ride public transit using all the same health precautions such as washing their hands, using hand sanitizer, practising cough and sneeze etiquette and staying home if sick,” Aikins said.

With files from Abhya Adlakha.

Ben Spurr is a Toronto-based reporter covering transportation. Reach him by email at bspurr@thestar.ca or follow him on Twitter: @BenSpurr

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