By Ryan Patrick Jones and Maria Cheng
July 19 (Reuters) – The Canadian government said on Sunday it would deny entry to any foreigner who has been to Congo within the past 21 days as part of new, temporary border measures to combat the spread of Ebola.
The ban contravenes advice from the World Health Organization, which advises against travel or trade restrictions with Congo, where officials are currently struggling to contain a large outbreak of Ebola. The U.N. health agency says travel restrictions create stigma and can make epidemics harder to control.
“People from affected regions and African communities have faced unfair suspicion,” WHO said in a statement last month. “The spread of Ebola is not determined by nationality or ethnicity.” WHO estimates that the risk of Congo’s Ebola outbreak spreading internationally is low.
Ebola is mostly spread through direct contact with the bodily fluids of someone infected with the disease. As of July 15, Congo had reported more than 2,100 Ebola cases including 828 deaths.
In a statement on Sunday, Canada’s Public Health Agency said “limiting entry of foreign nationals who have been in (Congo) in the previous 21 days may reduce public health risks for Canadians.”
The measures take effect on Monday, July 20, at 11:59 p.m. EDT, the Public Health Agency of Canada said in a statement. Canada previously suspended immigration documents for residents from Congo, Uganda and South Sudan. No Ebola cases have been confirmed in South Sudan and Uganda has not reported any new cases since last month.
Mark Johnson, a spokesman for the agency, acknowledged in an email that the risk to Canadians was low and that failure to comply with the new restrictions could result in a fine of up to CAD$150,000 for individuals and up to $1.5 million for corporations.
He said the updated measures “aligns some of Canada’s temporary border measures with those of the U.S. and Mexico.”
Last week, the U.S. introduced measures preventing Americans who had been in Congo in the previous 21 days from entering the U.S. via commercial aviation. Seven American aid workers who had been working in Congo to stop the outbreak are currently quarantining in a facility in Kenya.
The European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control has recommended against travel bans for people from Congo, saying they can disrupt humanitarian aid and have limited effectiveness.
(Reporting by Ryan Patrick Jones in Toronto and Maria Cheng in Ottawa; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama and Franklin Paul)
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