Variant Omicron | Ottawa plans to close the border to all foreign travelers

(Ottawa) To prevent the new Omicron variant from causing an uncontrolled increase in COVID-19 cases across the country in the next few days, the Trudeau government is seriously considering closing the border again to all foreign travelers making non-commuting trips. .

Joel-Denise Belavens
Press

This change of direction was deemed necessary in the current health context and may be imposed in the coming days, according to the information obtained Press From trusted sources.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his cabinet received the latest estimates from the Chief Administrator of the Canadian Public Health Agency on Tuesday.^Back Theresa Tom. And these new predictions are fantastic, we explained.

“We will definitely return to the foreign border closures that took effect in March 2020. This will again affect foreign tourism,” government sources said.

Trudeau called his regional colleagues on a conference call on Tuesday evening to explain his government’s intentions. In the past, provinces have almost agreed to tighten border measures.

The Trudeau government will review the situation on Wednesday. It is also expected that a formal notice will be issued to Canadians not to travel abroad unnecessarily, as was done before the notice was lifted in October.

In an interview with CTV, which aired on Sunday, Justin Trudeau made it clear that he was very concerned about the Omicron variant.

“The Omicron variant is scary, and this is the last thing you want – you have to worry about another wave,” Trudeau said in the interview.

“But if we continue to vaccinate and people take their booster doses and we vaccinate children and we continue to follow public health rules, we’re going to get a much better summer from this winter,” he said.

In her financial and economic update submitted on Tuesday, Finance Minister Christiaan Freeland set aside $ 4.5 billion to fund various actions against Omicron.

Since the Omicron variant was launched three weeks ago, ministers in the Trudeau government have announced border measures in hopes of curbing its spread. However, these measures are not enough. The variant quickly appeared in the country and only a few days before replacing the Delta variant to become the dominant variant.

Federal Health Minister Jean-Yves Duclos has been issuing warnings to Canadians seeking to travel abroad in the coming days for the past few days.

Again on Tuesday, Mr Duclos appeared in front of a microphone as he left the House of Commons, reiterating his concern about the spread of the Omicron variant across the planet.

According to Duclos, the Omicron variant is “set up very quickly”.

“If so, things will be very complicated for these Canadians outside the country,” he warned.

In the spring of 2020, at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, Ottawa set up dozens of domestic flights for civilians stranded outside Canada. Travelers are advised not to go abroad.

On October 21, Ottawa lifted its advice to avoid unnecessary travel outside the country. Federal officials continued the warning.

When the Omicron variant emerged, the federal government first announced a ban on entry for travelers from several identified countries. Since then, these new, highly contagious variant cases have been reported almost everywhere.

Ottawa plans to test all travelers entering the country, except those from the United States, to prevent Omicron’s entry into Canada. Even by avoiding most of those coming from the south to the border, Canadian authorities quickly realized that not all other travelers were likely to pass the test.

Last Friday, Minister Duclos calculated that it was only possible to test 23,000 passengers a day and at that time it was only possible to conduct 17,000 tests a day at airports across the country.

With the Canadian Press