Omicron Variant: Canada Lifts Travel Ban On Nigeria, 9 Other African Countries

The government of Canada has made it known that it will be lifting the ban on international travel from 10 African countries effective from December 18 at 11:59 p.m.

The Health Minister, Jean-Yves Duclos made the disclosure on Friday.

The ban was first implemented on November 26 to seven African countries, but within days, it was expanded to three other countries.

The ten countries on Canada's banlist include South Africa, Mozambique, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Lesotho, Eswatini, Namibia, Nigeria, Malawi and Egypt.

All incoming travellers will now be re-introduced to pre-arrival testing.

A negative pre-arrival test will be required for all new arrivals to Canada starting December 21.

Canadian residents can however leave and come back within 72 hours without needing a pre-arrival COVID-19 test.

According to the government, the ban was put in place as a result of the high rate of travellers testing positive for coronavirus.

Since the ban was put in place in November, Canada has been massively criticized for only including African countries on the list even though the Omicron variant of COVID-19 had been detected in 44 countries at the time.

The ban was initially set to expire on January 31.