OTTAWA -- Canada is reconsidering its travel ban on 10 African countries amid calls for it to be lifted, and questions over the government鈥檚 rationale given the increasingly widespread transmission of the Omicron variant across the world.
According to Chief Public Health Officer Dr. Theresa Tam, it鈥檚 鈥渁 policy that needs to be revisited.鈥
鈥淭here is an active examination of that situation seeing this virus is in many countries,鈥 Tam said.
On Nov. 26 the federal government first restricted travellers from seven African countries鈥擲outh Africa, Mozambique, Namibia, Zimbabwe, Botswana, Lesotho and Eswatini鈥攆rom entering Canada, citing rates of community transmission of Omicron. It was then expanded to include
The policy bans the entry into Canada of all foreign nationals who travelled to these countries in the last 14 days. Canadians, permanent residents as well as all those who have the right to return to Canada have still been able to fly home but are facing new testing and government quarantine facility stays upon arrival.
Tam said that while the Public Health Agency of Canada has detected a higher test-positivity rate from certain countries on the list, she thinks it鈥檚 鈥渧ery important鈥 for federal officials to 鈥渞e-examine that policy.鈥
Facing questions about the ongoing scientific basis for these measures given other nations have lifted their bans and now there are high rates of Omicron transmission in other countries that aren鈥檛 on the banned list like the United Kingdom, Tam鈥檚 deputy, Dr. Howard Njoo, couldn鈥檛 say what the rationale for that is.
鈥榃e鈥檙e obviously monitoring the situation. We have sort of the data. We鈥檙e seeing what鈥檚 happening both here in Canada domestically, internationally and that data, that advice information is given to ministers,鈥 Njoo said.
鈥淢inisters in the Cabinet, the prime minister, everyone is looking at all of that data and taking other factors into account and carefully considering and potentially, like I say, other decisions may be forthcoming.鈥
On Thursday, Transport Minister Omar Alghabra told reporters that the government continues to assess its border measures and 鈥渢here are other considerations being taken into account,鈥 including on the 10 countries list.
