Canada has announced the lifting of a ban on foreign travelers from Nigeria and nine other African countries.
Apart from Nigeria, the travel restriction on flights is also lifted on Botswana, Egypt, Eswatini, Malawi, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Lesotho, Namibia and South Africa.
Health Minister Jean-Yves Duclos said at a news conference on Friday that it has reimposed testing, warning that the Omicron variant of Covid-19 risks quickly overwhelming hospitals.
He said the lifting of the travel ban would take effect from 11:59 pm on Saturday.
The restriction had been announced last month “to slow the arrival of Omicron in Canada and buy us some time,” he said.
“But with Omicron now spreading within Canada it is no longer needed,” he added.
Pre-arrival negative PCR tests for all travelers would also be reinstated as of December 21, Duclos said, while repeating a government warning earlier this week that “now is not the time to travel.”
Officials said laboratory tests have confirmed as of Friday nearly 350 cases of the Omicron variant across Canada.
The total average daily Covid case count, meanwhile, has jumped by 45 percent in the past week to about 5,000.
Chief Public Health Officer Theresa Tam explained that “It is expected the sheer number of (Omicron) cases could inundate the health system in a very short period of time.”