“Foreign nationals who have transited or stayed in these 10
countries cannot enter Canada if they have been in those countries in the last
two weeks,” Health Minister Jean-Yves Duclos told a press conference.
The measure takes effect on Wednesday, the government said.
Any Canadians or permanent residents who have been in any of
the 10 countries will need to quarantine on arrival and take a Covid test.
Duclos also said “in the coming days,” all air travelers
arriving from outside Canada, apart from the United States, will now need to be
tested for Covid-19 at their point of entry, and isolate until their test
results are available.
First reported to the World Health Organization less than a
week ago after being detected in southern Africa earlier in November, the
Omicron variant has appeared in well over a dozen countries, stoking global
fears about a coronavirus pandemic that has killed more than five million
people and savaged economies worldwide.
“The pandemic is not over,” Transport Minister Omar Alghabra
added. “Travel measures could change at any moment.”
Canada on Friday banned entry to all travelers from seven
southern African countries: Botswana, Swaziland, Lesotho, Mozambique, Namibia,
South Africa, and Zimbabwe.
And on Sunday, Canada confirmed it had detected its first
cases of the new Omicron strain, in two people who had traveled recently to
Nigeria.
The WHO warned on Tuesday that travel bans will not prevent
the spread of the new variant, after some 50 countries put similar measures in
place.
Canada has reported a total of 1,791,902 coronavirus cases and 29,681 deaths.