“Canadians traveling may catch the virus or be stranded abroad,” the minister said. (File)
Ottawa:
The Canadian government on Wednesday urged people to avoid traveling abroad over the Christmas holiday, saying the Omicron variant of Covid “makes us fear the worst”, including soaring infections and cockroaches travel section.
Officials said at a news conference the travel advisory would be reassessed in four weeks, but public health restrictions could be imposed in the interim if the pandemic situation worsens. .
“Our government is officially advising Canadians to avoid non-essential travel outside of Canada,” Health Minister Jean-Yves Duclos told a news conference.
“For those who are planning to travel, I say very clearly: Now is not the time to travel. The rapid spread of the Covid variant on a global scale makes us fear the worst. best,” he said.
“Canadians traveling may catch the virus or be stranded abroad.”
At an emergency meeting late Tuesday, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau proposed closing the border, but the measure was rejected outright by provincial leaders, a source told AFP.
Duclos said Covid screening for travelers at Canadian airports will be stepped up and other public health measures will be rolled out in the coming days.
“There will certainly be other public health measures (coming soon), because the situation will continue to evolve,” Duclos said.
“The epidemiological situation is changing rapidly,” he said.
Earlier, Trudeau told reporters that Canadians should “make careful decisions regarding Christmas festivities.”
Last year, around this time, all visitors to Canada were required to quarantine for 14 days.
The World Health Organization warned on Tuesday that cases of the Omicron variant were multiplying at a breakneck pace and urged countries to act quickly to try to slow its spread.
As of Wednesday, there were 40,000 active Covid cases in Canada, and at least 4,500 new infections reported by public health authorities.
(Except for the title, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from an aggregated feed.)
