Canada Tackles Omicron, Implements COVID-19 Tests at Airports, Extends Travel Ban

OTTAWA – Canada is strengthening its defenses against the Omicron variant of COVID-19 with new testing and quarantine requirements for inbound air travelers from all countries except the United States.

It also bars foreign nationals who have traveled to three other African countries from traveling to Canada, just days after banning travel from seven other countries in a bid to contain the new variant of the deadly coronavirus.

With the variant already present in Canada, Federal Health Minister Jean-Yves Duclos said on Tuesday that Ottawa will require most air travelers – whether or not they are vaccinated against COVID-19 – to undergo molecular tests provided by the government upon arrival at Canadian airports from overseas. . This is in addition to the existing requirement to be tested and receive a negative result within 72 hours before flying to Canada, Duclos said.

Fully vaccinated travelers will then have to self-quarantine in Canada until they test negative on their arrival test, he said, adding that the new testing measures would be put on hold. work at Canadian airports “over the next few days.”

This new requirement does not apply to travelers from the United States, but Duclos said the government may change this depending on the situation with the Omicron variant. The federal government is also discussing with the provinces the advisability of implementing broader testing requirements at Canada’s land border as well.

The federal government is also adding Nigeria, Malawi and Egypt to the list of African countries from which foreign travelers are banned. The rules now state that any foreign national who has traveled to these countries in the past two weeks are prohibited from entering Canada. Canadian citizens and permanent residents who have traveled there and who have the right to re-enter Canada are now subject to more stringent testing, isolation and quarantine requirements.

“The pandemic is not over,” Transport Minister Omar Alghabra said on Tuesday, urging people to get vaccinated and to respect public health measures.

Duclos acknowledged that even with the new travel restrictions, “there will most likely be community transmission of the new variant at some point in Canada. We don’t see any evidence of that now because, as I said, we were able to detect cases of these travelers, due to our border and other public health measures. “

However, the government is also asking its vaccine advisory committee for further guidance on the use of COVID-19 booster injections for the general population – not just for health workers and vulnerable populations like this. is the case now – in light of new concerns surrounding the world over the Omicron variant. Some countries, such as France, now define “fully vaccinated” as having three doses of a vaccine for people over 65 years of age.

The World Health Organization said the variant includes mutations that could help it spread more easily and potentially violate immunity conferred by vaccines.

The Omicron variant is a “source of concern, not a source of panic,” Duclos said. He said its emergence could be “one more reason” why the vaccine advisory committee should renew its guidelines on booster shots for fully vaccinated Canadians.

“We know this pandemic will only end when it ends globally,” said Duclos, acknowledging the “dual challenge” of protecting Canadians while helping poorer countries get vaccine doses. to prevent the global spread of COVID-19.

Stricter border testing measures could help slow the spread of the new variant “if that is the goal,” infectious disease expert Dr Isaac Bogoch said, but stressed that there was a ” big gaping hole “in strategy,” and that gaping hole is the United States, “because travelers from the United States are not subject to the new testing and isolation requirements on arrival.

The reasons for excluding the United States are likely both “political and pragmatic,” Bogoch said, but added that there is no doubt that the United States also has Omicron cases – “they don’t. just haven’t detected them yet “.

Canada introduced the new rules and extended its travel ban as the Netherlands admitted on Tuesday that the Omicron variant appeared to have reached that country before being identified in South Africa last week. The latest variant has now been detected in countries outside the Southern Africa region, including Australia, Belgium, Denmark, Hong Kong, Israel, Portugal and the United Kingdom.

This is why Bogoch said he does not favor targeted country lists. “I think this is largely a mole game, where you add more and more countries or regions to a list but you’re still two steps behind because the virus is already beyond these areas. “

But Canada’s chief public health officer Dr Theresa Tam said Canada has only listed countries that have had difficulty identifying the presence of the Omicron variant despite evidence that it is circulating. already.

The three additional countries listed on Tuesday “have yet to report the Omicron variant in their own country before other countries report imports from these countries, including Belgium, Israel, Hong Kong, South Korea and now Canada, which detected cases before the country. original detected cases, ”Tam said.

With current layers of protection in Canada, including widespread immunization, testing and public health measures like masking, Duclos and public health officials have suggested that more targeted travel restrictions will “buy time” to that researchers determine how threatening the new Omicron variant is. is: if it is indeed more transmissible, causes more serious disease and if it has the capacity to evade the immunity induced by the vaccine.

Last Friday, the government announced it was banning travel from South Africa, Eswatini, Lesotho, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Mozambique and Namibia, as well as the entry of foreign nationals who have traveled in any of the countries listed in the last 14 days.

It also requires Canadians and permanent residents who have visited those countries in the past two weeks to get a negative PCR test in a third country from which travel is not restricted before they can return to Canada.

But the variant is already in Canada, with at least seven confirmed cases. After cases were reported in Ottawa and Quebec on Monday, Alberta confirmed its first case of the Omicron variant on Tuesday. The province’s senior public health official, Deena Hinshaw, told reporters in Edmonton the case was linked to travel from Nigeria and the Netherlands. British Columbia also registered its first case on Tuesday, the fourth province to do so.

To date, Canada has recorded 1.79 million cases of COVID-19 and 29,670 deaths directly due to the infection.