Omicron travel ban: Canada reconsiders

OTTAWA – Canada is reconsidering its travel ban in 10 African countries amid calls to lift it and questions over the government’s justification given the increasingly widespread transmission of the Omicron variant around the world.

According to Chief Public Health Officer Dr. Theresa Tam, this is “a policy that needs to be reviewed.”

“There is an active review of this situation as this virus is present in many countries,” Tam said.

On November 26, the federal government first banned travelers from seven African countries – South Africa, Mozambique, Namibia, Zimbabwe, Botswana, Lesotho and Eswatini – from entering Canada, citing community transmission rates of Omicron . It was then expanded to include Nigeria, Malawi and Egypt on November 30

The policy prohibits entry into Canada of all foreign nationals who have traveled to these countries in the last 14 days. Canadians, permanent residents and anyone with the right to return to Canada have always been able to return home by air, but face further testing and stays in government quarantine facilities upon arrival.

Tam said that although the Public Health Agency of Canada has detected a higher test positivity rate in some of the countries on the list, she believes it is “very important” that federal officials “reconsider this policy. “.

Faced with questions about the current scientific basis for these measures, as other countries have lifted their bans and there are now high rates of transmission of Omicron in other countries not on the list bans like UK Tam’s deputy Dr Howard Njoo couldn’t say what the reason is.

“We are obviously monitoring the situation. We kind of have the data. We see what’s going on here in Canada nationally, internationally and this data, this advice is given to ministers, ”Njoo said.

“Cabinet ministers, the prime minister, everybody is looking at all of this data and taking other factors into account and looking at it carefully and potentially, like I said, other decisions could be made.”