Multiple news outlets report that the Canadian government is banning the entry of foreign travellers into Canada if they’ve been visited South Africa.
Citing concerns over the new omicron variant of COVID-19, Health Minister Jean-Yves Duclos today announced Friday that Ottawa will impose five measures in an effort to limit the spread of the new variant.
According to Global News, “foreign nationals who have travelled through several south African countries in the past 14 days won’t be allowed into the country, he said. Those nations include South Africa, Mozambique, Namibia, Zimbabwe, Botswana, Lesotho and Eswatini.
“All those who’ve arrived in Canada in the last 14 days will have to quarantine and get tested for the virus. They will have to stay in isolation until they receive a negative test result.”
The CBC says that “countries around the world already have restricted travel from some areas of the African continent in an effort to keep the newly identified coronavirus variant — dubbed the “omicron” variant by the World Health Organization — from crossing their borders.
“While many questions remain about how transmissible or virulent this new variant is, the U.K. Health Security Agency warned Friday that the new strain found in southern Africa is the ‘most complex’ and the ‘most worrying we’ve seen,'” the network said.
Stock markets around the world plunged today as news of the omicron variant emerged.
