The Canadian government has extended its travel restriction on those who have recently visited Nigeria, citing concerns about the spread of the Coronavirus Omicron strain, which was just found.
This comes just two days after Canada revealed that it had discovered the first instances of the novel Omicron Coronavirus strain in two patients who had recently traveled to Nigeria.
Egypt and Malawi were also added to the list, bringing the total number of African nations where Canada has imposed a travel restriction due to worries about the spread of the new type to ten.
"We are adding three nations to the list of these countries that we discussed last Friday," Canadian Health Minister Jean-Yves Duclos said in a statement on Wednesday. "These countries are Malawi, Egypt, and Nigeria."
"As of today, foreign people who have visited these nations in the last 14 days are prohibited from entering Canada." They join a group of seven southern African countries that have been subjected to restrictive restrictions.
"Canadian citizens and permanent residents who have spent the previous 14 days in any of these 10 countries must have a negative PCR test before being allowed to travel to Canada." They will be subjected to additional testing and quarantine measures once they arrive in Canada.
"These new rules apply to all Canadian citizens and permanent residents, including those who have been completely vaccinated," stated the official.
Nigeria's Omicron
Nigeria announced the first cases of the Omicron variety, also known as the B.1.1.529 lineage, on Wednesday.
In a statement issued by the Director-General, Ifedayo Adetifa, the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control () said three examples of the variation were detected by "genomic sequencing."
They were detected in South African travelers, where the new strain had already begun to spread.
While no deaths have been connected to the new variation, the disease center verified its high mutations and transmissibilities, saying that a total of 126 genomes of the variant have been found thus far.
Meanwhile, the NCDC director, Mr Adetifa, said in an interview with Channels Television on Wednesday morning that the new variation is a reason for caution rather than fear because the death rate is still extremely low.
