Canada announced on Friday that it would be reinstating a testing requirement for returning travelers that have left the country in an effort to manage the spread of the omicron variant.
The country said that people returning to Canada after short-term international travel — in this case, less than 72 hours — would be required to show negative COVID-19 results from a PCR test.
U.S.’s northern neighbor noted that the pre-arrival test had to be taken before entering back into the country.
The Canadian government also announced that travel restrictions would be lifted on residents coming back from 10 African countries. The restrictions no longer be in place as of Saturday at 11:59 p.m.
“While we recognize the controversial nature of this measure, we believe it was necessary to slow the arrival of Omicron in Canada and buy us some time. Given the current situation, this measure has served its purpose and is no longer needed,” the government said, according to a press release from the Public Health Agency of Canada.
The Canadian government noted that a requirement for Canadians who had traveled to any of the 10 countries would no longer need to show a negative COVID-19 test and quarantine while waiting for their results.
However, Canada urged its residents against non-essential travel, noting “now is not the time to travel.”
The developments come as the omicron variant rapidly spreads all over the world. Canada reported its first cases of the variant in late November. Scientists are racing to learn more about the variant, including how severe and contagious it is.
But early research of the variant appears to be encouraging.
A study, still under peer review, from researchers from the University of Hong Kong’s LKS Faculty of Medicine suggests that while the omicron variant can spread 70 times more quickly in humans than previous strains, “the Omicron infection in the lung is significantly lower than the original SARS-CoV-2, which may be an indicator of lower disease severity,” according to the university.