JUST IN: Canada lifts travel ban on Nigeria, nine others

Canada on Friday lifted the travel ban on Nigeria and nine other African countries.

The other nations whose travel ban had been lifted were Botswana, Egypt, Eswatini (formerly Swaziland), Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, and Zimbabwe.

Ottawa had on December 1 extended the travel ban to Nigeria, Egypt and Malawi amid worries over the spread of the new variant of COVID-19, Omicron.

This followed the detection of cases of Omicron in two people who had travelled to Nigeria.

The Canadian Minister of Health, Jean-Yves Duclos who announced the development at a news conference on Friday, however, said the lifting of the travel ban would take effect from 11:59 p.m. on Saturday.

READ ALSO: UK says no going back on travel ban on Nigerians

The country also reintroduced testing and warned that the Omicron variant was rapidly overwhelming hospitals.

Duclos said: “The restriction had been announced last month to slow the arrival of Omicron in Canada and buy us some time

“But with Omicron now spreading within Canada it is no longer needed.

“Pre-arrival negative PCR tests for all travelers would also be reinstated as of December 21.

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