Legault ‘very concerned’ about new variant, pushes for travel restrictions

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Canada has introduced travel restrictions for people traveling from southern Africa after the discovery of a new variant of the coronavirus.

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Among the restrictions announced on Friday afternoon, the federal government has banned entry to people from seven countries: South Africa, Mozambique, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Lesotho, Namibia and Eswatini (formerly known as Swaziland).

People who have arrived in Canada from those countries in the past 14 days are asked to self-quarantine and reserve COVID-19 testing.

Early Friday, Quebec Prime Minister François Legault added his voice to that of other Canadian prime ministers and said his government had asked Ottawa to introduce travel restrictions and track passengers who have been to South Africa.

Legault was reacting to a new variant of the coronavirus detected in South Africa this week that has prompted countries to tighten border controls.

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“There are already identified cases in Belgium,” Legault said. “We are very worried”.

Cases have also been identified in Israel, Hong Kong and Botswana.

On the recent increase in cases in the province, the prime minister said that the number of hospitalizations in Quebec remains stable, at 200, which is a good sign. It is five times less than the proportion observed in the United States.

Quebec reported 1,037 new cases on Friday, the most since May. Legault said there is no news of any new restrictions at this time, but said the government will announce its plan on how to manage the Christmas season “in the coming weeks.”

Originally called B.1.1.529, the new variant was spotted in South Africa this week and has already prompted the EU and Britain to tighten border controls.

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The World Health Organization recommended on Friday that it be designated as a variant of concern and named the variant for the Greek letter Omicron. The WHO says preliminary evidence suggests that Omicron carries a higher risk of reinfection than other worrisome variants.

It appears to have a different spike protein than the original coronavirus. At a news conference Thursday, the WHO said it could take weeks to determine how effective vaccines are against you.

In an interview on Friday, one of Quebec’s leading infectious disease experts said it’s normal for new variants to emerge during a pandemic, but that doesn’t mean the province needn’t worry about the potential impact of the pandemic.

“The fact that it was detected very quickly shows that everyone is monitoring this kind of thing now, and we will have threats like this over and over and over again,” said Dr. Karl Weiss, president of the association of infectious disease specialists. from Quebec. .

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“The only thing is, you have to be prepared for it. And the best way to fight it is to immunize people and get vaccinated. “

As it has done before, Weiss asked Quebec to roll out booster vaccines to a larger number of the population much earlier, especially for those who work in the healthcare network.

“That’s what the whole world is doing right now: the Americans, the Europeans, the other provinces are doing this,” Weiss said.

“You have to make sure they are protected,” he added, “because if you don’t have health workers, it will be difficult for the system.”

This story will be updated.

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