“The South African public health labs are hugely to be commended for sequencing this, finding it, sharing the data … The scientific world will be able to do so much good with that information,” she said. What’s more, Colijn said singling out these countries with travel bans could dissuade them from sharing critical research about Omicron or future variants with the rest of the world. “We can’t pick these seven countries and say, ‘Okay, for the next three weeks, this is where it’s going to be.’” “I think we need broader measures at the border, and it should apply to all international travel,” Colijn said in an interview Sunday. She noted cases had begun cropping up in several other countries that weren’t targeted by the heightened restrictions even before the Ontario diagnoses came to light, adding it was only a matter of time before a case was found in Canada. The news comes just days after the federal government announced it was banning travellers from seven southern African nations - Nigeria not among them - in an effort to keep Omicron out of the country.Ĭaroline Colijn, a mathematician and epidemiologist at Simon Fraser University, said it was “wishful thinking” to believe the variant, which was first detected in South Africa, would somehow be contained to the region. Public health officials in Ontario confirmed the country’s first two cases of the variant in the Ottawa area on Sunday afternoon, noting they were found in people who had recently been in Nigeria. As Canada confirms its first cases of the Omicron COVID-19 variant, scientists say banning travellers from southern African countries in an effort to curb its importation is wishful thinking that could do more harm than good.
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