Canada announced on Friday that it would ban the entry into the country of all foreigners who in the past 14 days have passed through seven southern African countries due to the appearance of a new variant of the coronavirus. called “omicron”.
The measure was announced today at a press conference by Canadian Health Minister Jean-Yves Duclos, who also said that all Canadians who have traveled through southern Africa will need to test negative before you can board for Canada.
Once in Canada, Canadian travelers will be required to stay in an isolation hotel and be retested for the virus. Once they test negative, travelers will be required to self-isolate at home for 10 days.
Additionally, travelers who are already in Canada but have traveled through southern Africa in the past few weeks will be required to be tested for the virus and isolate at home until they test negative. .
Canada does not currently maintain direct flights with the seven southern African countries affected by the measure: South Africa, Mozambique, Namibia, Zimbabwe, Botswana, Lesotho and Eswatini.
The announcement of the restrictions comes just as the World Health Organization (WHO) today declared the new coronavirus variant detected in South Africa as a ‘risky variant’ and named it the letter Greek omicron.
WHO experts have pointed out that the new variant appears to be more contagious than previous ones, although there is still no data to determine whether it is more or less resistant to covid-19 vaccines.
So far, the omicron variant has been detected in South Africa, Botswana, Hong Kong (China) and Belgium.
“Pop culture fanatic. Introvert. Devoted food trailblazer. Bacon geek. Lifelong coffee evangelist.”