Canada says it will lift its travel ban on 10 African countries, South Africa among them, from Sunday December 19.
Canadian Health Minister Jean-Yves Duclos said the state will reimpose testing requirements from Tuesday, December 21, to avoid overwhelming the healthcare system.
He is reported by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation to have said: “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.”
Travel restrictions were against travellers from South Africa, Lesotho, eSwatini, Botswana, Mozambique, Nigeria, Zimbabwe, Namibia, Malawi and Egypt, as Canada tried to fight off the spread of the Omicron variant.
The federal Government has advised Canadians to avoid all non-essential travel “for the time being”.
