Canada altered its stance on pandemic travel prohibitions

Key takeaways: 

• While authorities dispute whether they work, Ottawa has gone from denying travel limitations to inflicting them.
• Canada alters its position on the travel limitations. 

Ottawa imposes travel ban after opposing them: 

South African President Cyril Ramaphosa took the perfect venue Tuesday to make the debate that a travel limitation inflicted on his nation is both “unscientific” and “discriminatory.”

He made the comments — which he tweeted out to the world — onboard a government jet about to leave for a trip to Nigeria, Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana and Senegal.

“We have come out in total rejection of these bans that have been imposed on southern Africa, and we are insisting that they be lifted,” stated Ramaphosa. Source – cbc.ca

“We have advanced as a world to a point where we now know that when people travel they should be tested like I was tested last night, and I’m happy to be tested when I arrive again. We’ve got the tools, we’ve got the means to be able to deal with this.” Source – cbc.ca

Also read: Crowding constraints in Interior Health area to rest Dec. 1

But even African solidarity was hurt by the news of the omicron variant, as Rwanda entered the list of nations that have momentarily forbidden travellers from southern Africa.

Canada was ready to join that list, arousing complaints from Canadians with South African ties. On Tuesday, it joined Nigeria, Malawi and Egypt to the roster of nations it has put under travel limitations.

The U.S., U.K. and EU nations also put eight African nations under a travel limitation — even as some of their leaders praised South Africa for its “rapid genomic sequencing and leadership in transparently sharing scientific data”.

G7 health ministers also announced a joint statement that “praised the exemplary work of South Africa in both detecting the variant and alerting others to it.” But every seven nations imposed rules that restrict the potential of South Africans and others from the area to move throughout the world. Source – cbc.ca