The Canadian government has lifted the ban imposed on travel
from 10 African countries including Nigeria.
Jean-Yves Duclos, minister of health in Canada, announced
the decision at a media briefing on Friday.
The development comes almost three weeks after the Canadian
government banned 10 African countries — including Nigeria — over concerns
relating to the Omicron COVID variant.
Omicron has been designated as a “variant of concern” by the
World Health Organisation (WHO).
Aside from Nigeria, other countries affected by the Canada
travel ban are Botswana, Egypt, Eswatini, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia,
South Africa and Zimbabwe.
In a statement issued on November 30, the Canadian
government had said the decision to ban the countries was to “reduce the risk
of the importation and transmission of COVID-19 and its variants in Canada
related to international travel”.
The ban had, however, elicited criticism with stakeholders
insisting that other measures aside from locking out countries should be
considered in the interest of maintaining a united front in the global fight
against the COVID pandemic.
Speaking on the reversal of the ban on Friday, the Canadian
health minister said the new development will take effect from December 18.
“With the evolving situation and overwhelming evidence of
community transmission of Omicron in most countries around the world, we have
taken the decision to lift the specific measures for travellers returning from
the 10 countries initially listed,” he said.
“This will be in effect as of December 18, 11:59pm.
“While we recognise the controversial nature of such a
prohibition, we believe it was a necessary measure to slow the arrival of
Omicron in Canada and buy us some time.
“Given the current
situation, this measure has served its purpose and is no longer needed.”
Advertise on NigerianEye.com to reach thousands of our daily users
No comments
Post a Comment
Kindly drop a comment below.
(Comments are moderated. Clean comments will be approved immediately)
Advert Enquires - Reach out to us at NigerianEye@gmail.com