'Buying time': How Canada came around on pandemic travel bans | CBC News

South African President Cyril Ramaphosa chose the perfect venue Tuesday to make the argument that a travel ban imposed on his country is both "unscientific" and "discriminatory.".

"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," said Ramaphosa.

"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.

But even African solidarity was strained by the news of the omicron variant, as Rwanda joined the list of countries that have temporarily banned travelers from southern Africa.

and EU countries also placed eight African countries under a travel ban — even as some of their leaders congratulated South Africa for its "rapid genomic sequencing and leadership in transparently sharing scientific data".

G7 health ministers also issued a joint statement that "praised the exemplary work of South Africa in both detecting the variant and alerting others to it." But all seven countries imposed measures that limit the ability of South Africans and others from the region to move around the world.

The Trudeau government — following the lead of the World Health Organization — publicly opposed travel bans at the beginning of the pandemic. Chief Public Health Officer Theresa Tam herself denounced the idea of stopping travellers at the time.

China itself loudly opposed travel bans back when it was seen as the epicentre of the pandemic.

Canada has acted faster in response to the omicron variant, imposing a ban on seven southern African countries within days of the first news reports about the variant.

While politicians have reversed course on travel bans, many experts remain unconvinced of their usefulness — for two main reasons.

The first is a belief that travel bans move too slowly to stop variants. Omicron has been detected already in travel-related cases from Hong Kong to Canada and there is growing evidence of community transmission in England, Scotland and Portugal.

The second argument against travel bans is the most compelling, said epidemiologist Dr Prabhat Jha of St.

We want countries to do more sequencing and share that information freely, without fear that if they report it, they're going to get a travel ban.".

Omicron is the second variant of concern to be detected by South African health authorities.

"With the Omicron variant now detected in several regions of the world," she said, "putting in place travel bans that target Africa attacks global solidarity.".

Colombia's health minister tweeted that his country would fight the omicron variant with vaccination, testing and tracing, and called for "no discrimination against nations that invest in vigilance and reporting.".

A study in the journal Science that looked at bans in the earliest stages of the pandemic found that "the travel quarantine introduced in Wuhan on 23 January 2020 only delayed epidemic progression by 3 to 5 days within China, but international travel restrictions did help to slow spread elsewhere in the world until mid-February.".

The arrival of the omicron variant has given new urgency for calls for more equitable distribution of vaccines worldwide. .

"They're the ones, be they in Florida or be they in South Africa, that are the variant factories.

John said that travel bans have failed if they're judged by their effectiveness in keeping variants out permanently. But bans can slow the entry of new variants into a country, he said, which can give local health authorities more time to understand the threat and prepare for it.

Canada has imposed a ban on the entry of foreign travellers who have been in one of ten African countries in the past 14 days.

The countries are: South Africa, Namibia, Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Botswana, Lesotho and Eswatini (formerly Swaziland), Egypt, Nigeria and Malawi.

Spain's approach differs from that of some European countries: it permits travelers from southern Africa to enter the country but subjects them to a 10-day quarantine. Spain also implemented a month-long ban on the entry of all unvaccinated travelers from the U.K., beginning December 1.

Several other countries have barred the entry of people who have been in southern Africa recently?