Canada ramps up against Omicron, puts COVID-19 testing in airports and expands travel ban

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This article was published 29/11/2021 (1025 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

OTTAWA—Canada is ramping up its defences against the Omicron variant of COVID-19 with new test and quarantine requirements for incoming air travellers from all countries except the United States.

It is also banning foreign nationals who have been to an additional three African countries from travelling to Canada, just days after banning travel from seven other countries in an attempt to contain the new variant of the deadly coronavirus.

With the variant already present in Canada, federal Health Minister Jean-Yves Duclos said Tuesday that Ottawa will require most air travellers — regardless of whether they are vaccinated against COVID-19 — to take government-provided molecular tests upon arrival at Canadian airports from abroad. That is on top of the existing requirement to be tested and receive a negative result within 72 hours before flying to Canada, Duclos said.

Travellers who are fully vaccinated will then have to self-quarantine in Canada until they get a negative result from their arrival test, he said, adding that the new testing measures would be implemented at Canadian airports “over the next few days.”

This new requirement does not apply to travellers from the U.S., but Duclos said the government might change that depending on how the situation with the Omicron variant plays out. The federal government is also discussing with provinces whether to implement broader testing requirements at Canada’s land border as well.

The federal government is also adding Nigeria, Malawi and Egypt to the list of African countries from which foreign travellers are banned. The rules now say any foreign national who has travelled to those countries in the past two weeks are barred from entry into Canada. Canadian citizens and permanent residents who travelled there and have a right of re-entry to Canada are now subject to tougher testing, isolation and quarantine requirements.

“The pandemic is not over,” Transport Minister Omar Alghabra told reporters on Tuesday, urging people to get vaccinated and observe public health measures.

Duclos acknowledged that even with the new travel restrictions, “there will be most likely community transmission of the new variant at some point in Canada. We see no evidence of this now because as I said, we have been able to detect the cases of those travellers, because of our border and other public health measures.”

However, the government is also asking for fresh guidance from its vaccine advisory committee on the use of COVID-19 booster shots for the broader population — not just for health workers and vulnerable populations as it is now — in light of new concerns circling the globe about the Omicron variant. Some countries, like France, are now defining “fully vaccinated” as having three doses of a vaccine for those over age 65.

The World Health Organization has said the variant includes mutations that could help it spread more easily and potentially breach the immunity conferred by vaccines.

The Omicron variant is a “source of concern, not a source of panic,” said Duclos. He said its emergence could be “one more reason” why the vaccine advisory committee should renew its guidance on booster shots for fully vaccinated Canadians.

“We know that this pandemic is going to end only when it is going to end globally,” Duclos said, acknowledging the “double challenge” of protecting Canadians while helping poorer countries get vaccine doses to prevent the global spread of COVID-19.

The more stringent border testing measures could help slow down the spread of the new variant “if that is the goal,” said infectious diseases expert Dr. Isaac Bogoch, but he pointed out there is a “big gaping hole” in the strategy, “and that gaping hole is the United States” because travellers flying in from the U.S. are not subject to the new on-arrival test-and-isolation requirements.

The reasons for excluding the U.S. are probably both “political and pragmatic,” said Bogoch but he added there is little doubt the U.S. also has Omicron cases — “they just haven’t detected them yet.”

Canada introduced the new rules and expanded its travel ban as the Netherlands acknowledged Tuesday that the Omicron variant appeared to have reached that country before it was identified in South Africa last week. The latest variant has now been detected in countries outside the southern Africa region, including Australia, Belgium, Denmark, Hong Kong, Israel, Portugal and the United Kingdom.

That’s why Bogoch said he doesn’t favour targeted country lists. “I think this is largely a game of whack-a-mole, where you add an increasing number of countries or regions to a list but you’re always two steps behind because the virus is already beyond those areas.”

But Canada’s chief public health officer Dr. Theresa Tam said Canada has listed only countries that have had difficulty identifying the presence of the Omicron variant despite evidence that it is already circulating.

The three additional countries listed Tuesday “have not yet reported Omicron variant in their own country prior to other countries reporting importations from those countries, including Belgium, Israel, Hong Kong, South Korea, and now Canada, who’ve detected cases before the country of origin has detected cases,” said Tam.

With current layers of protection in Canada, including widespread vaccination, testing and public health measures like masking, Duclos and the public health officials suggested more targeted travel restrictions will “gain time” for researchers to determine just how much of a threat the new Omicron variant is: whether it is indeed more transmissible, causes more severe disease, and whether it has the ability to escape vaccine-induced immunity.

Last Friday, the government announced it was banning travel from South Africa, Eswatini, Lesotho, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Mozambique and Namibia, and the entry of foreign nationals who travelled to any of the listed countries within the past 14 days.

It is also requiring Canadians and permanent residents who have visited those countries in the past two weeks to get a negative PCR test in a third country from which travel isn’t restricted before they can return to Canada.

But the variant is already in Canada, with at least seven cases confirmed. After cases were reported Monday in Ottawa and Quebec, Alberta confirmed its first case of the Omicron variant on Tuesday. The province’s top public health officer, Deena Hinshaw, told reporters in Edmonton that the case was linked to travel from Nigeria and the Netherlands. British Columbia also recorded its first case on Tuesday, the fourth province to do so.

To date, Canada has recorded 1.79 million cases of COVID-19, and 29,670 deaths directly as a result of infection.

Tonda MacCharles is an Ottawa-based reporter covering federal politics for the Star. Follow her on Twitter: @tondamacc

Alex Ballingall is an Ottawa-based reporter covering federal politics for the Star. Follow him on Twitter: @aballinga