COVID: Canada bans travel from Egypt, Nigeria, Malawi amid spread of Omicron strain

Amid the growing concerns over the Omicron variant of COVID-19, Canada has added Egypt, Malawi, and Nigeria to the 'travel ban' list.

"We are adding three countries to the list of these countries that we talked about last Friday, these are Malawi, Egypt and Nigeria," Canadian Health Minister Jean-Yves Duclos was quoted as saying by Sputnik news agency.

Duclos added that all travellers coming from outside Canada, apart from the United States, would now be tested at Canadian airports for the novel coronavirus disease, regardless of vaccination status.

This came after the World Health Organization (WHO) on Tuesday called for countries to keep calm and take "rational" measures in response to the new Covid variant Omicron.

"We call on all member states to take rational, proportional risk-reduction measures," WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in a briefing to countries, reported Al Jazeera.

Meanwhile, the Omicron was already in the Netherlands when South Africa alerted the WHO about it last week.

( With inputs from ANI )