Amid worries over the spread of the recently discovered Omicron variant of the Coronavirus, the Canadian government has extended its travel ban on travellers who have recently visited Nigeria.
This is coming two days after Canada announced that it detected its first cases of the new Omicron strain of Coronavirus in two people who had travelled recently to Nigeria.
Egypt and Malawi were also added to the list, making it a total of 10 countries in Africa that were handed a travel ban by Canada over concerns of the spread of the new variant.
“We are adding three countries to the list of these countries that we talked about last Friday; these are Malawi, Egypt and Nigeria,” Canadian Health Minister Jean-Yves Duclos said in a statement on Wednesday.
“As of today, foreign nationals who have travelled to these countries over the last 14 days will be forbidden from entering Canada. They join a list of seven southern African countries that had restrictive measures imposed on them.
“Canadian citizens and permanent residents that have been in any of these ten countries over the last 14 days will need to receive a negative PCR test before being allowed to travel to Canada. Upon arriving in Canada, they will face more testing and quarantine measures.
“These new measures also apply to Canadian citizens and permanent residents, even those that are fully vaccinated,” the official said.
Meanwhile, virologists on Wednesday expressed concern that there was a high risk of community transmission of the Omicron variant of COVID-19 in the country.
The virologists, including a professor of Medical Virology at the University of Maiduguri, Marycelin Baba, who stated this in separate interviews with The PUNCH while reacting to detection of three cases of the Omicron variant in the country, called for community testing.
The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) had on Wednesday morning announced the discovery of three cases of the Omicron variant of the coronavirus.
The NCDC’s detection of three cases of Omiron variant came three days after Canada said it had detected cases of the variant in two travellers, who recently visited Nigeria.
A statement released by the NCDC Director-General, Ifedayo Adetifa, stated that the strain was detected in three persons with travel history to South Africa.
“The genomics surveillance has now identified and confirmed Nigeria’s first cases of the B.1.1.529 SARS-COV-2 lineage, now known as the omicron variant. Samples obtained for the stipulated day two test for all travellers to Nigeria were positive for this variant in three persons with travel history to South Africa.
“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. Arrangements are also being made to notify the country where travellers originated according to the provisions of the International Health Policy.
The PUNCH reports virologists as faulting the proposed plan of the NCDC to embark on contact tracing following the announcement of the discovery of three cases of the Omricon variant.
They called on the Federal Government to increase the vaccination rate in order to prevent more mutations.
A professor of medical virology at the University of Maiduguri, Baba, faulted the plans of the NCDC to engage in contact tracing a week after the samples were obtained.
Baba, who spoke in an interview with The PUNCH in Abuja, added that the virus was already in circulation.
“Engaging in contact tracing a week after the samples were taken is a futile adventure and simply a waste of time. Contact tracing has never been effective. Do you know the number of places the person has been to ? The variant is already in circulation and there is a high risk of community infections but how will we even know when we do not even engage in community testing?
