Canada extends travel ban to Nigeria over Omicron COVID variant

Canada has added Nigeria, along with Egypt and Malawi to the list of countries banned from entering its territory over the Omicron COVID variant.

Disclosing this, the country’s Health Minister, Jean-Yves Duclos, as quoted by Sputnik news agency said; “We are adding three countries to the list of these countries that we talked about last Friday, these are Malawi, Egypt and Nigeria”.

Duclos added that all travellers coming from outside Canada, apart from the United States, would now be tested at Canadian airports for the novel coronavirus disease, regardless of vaccination status.

Nigeria has recorded three cases of Omicron variant of COVID-19.

The Director-General of NCDC, Dr Ifedayo Adetifa, said “These cases were recent arrivals in the country in the past week. Follow up to ensure isolation, linkage to clinical care, contact tracing and other relevant response activities have commenced”.

Meanwhile, the World Health Organisation (WHO) had earlier criticised “blunt” and “blanket” measures taken by countries in to stop the spread of the Omicron variant of the Coronavirus (COVID-19)

Director-General of the WHO, Dr Tedros Ghebreyesus, said in a statement that it was “deeply concerning” some countries were “being penalised by others for doing the right thing”.