Canada is tightening its defenses against Ebola, announcing a full entry ban on foreign nationals who have set foot in the Democratic Republic of Congo within the last three weeks. The new restriction, unveiled by the Public Health Agency of Canada on Sunday, takes effect at one minute before midnight on Monday.
The policy marks a notable escalation from the country’s earlier approach. Back in May, Canada had asked travellers coming from Ebola-hit regions to quarantine themselves for 21 days upon arrival. Now, for non-citizens and non-residents who’ve recently been in the DRC, the answer will simply be no entry at all. Airlines both commercial and private have been instructed to deny boarding to any foreign national with recent Congo travel history on flights bound for Canada.
Health officials framed the decision as a practical one. In a statement, the Public Health Agency said cutting off entry to recent DRC visitors would ease pressure on Canada’s border health systems, allowing resources to be focused on safely managing travellers who do have a right to enter including aid workers returning home from the outbreak zone.
A spokesperson for the agency, while stressing that the danger to Canadians remains low, pointed to how dramatically the outbreak has accelerated. This is already the third-largest Ebola outbreak ever recorded, but unlike past epidemics, its growth curve has been unusually steep in recent weeks. For comparison, the 2018-19 flare-up took the better part of a year ten months to reach 2,000 confirmed infections. This time, that threshold has been crossed far faster, a trend officials called deeply troubling.
As of the latest count, 2,181 people have contracted the virus, and 864 have died from it. Looking ahead, projections shared by the agency paint a grim picture: models suggest the outbreak could balloon to roughly 3,200 total reported cases and as many as 1,330 deaths by the close of July, with the caseload currently doubling approximately every three weeks.
Compounding the challenge is how the virus is spreading. Health authorities say over 80 percent of new cases can’t be traced back to a known list of contacts, making containment far harder. Meanwhile, nearly 60 percent of community deaths involved people who never made it to a medical facility for treatment a sign of how much transmission is happening outside the reach of health workers.
Notably, the entry ban applies only to the DRC. South Sudan and Uganda, which had been folded into the original self-isolation rule back in May, are not subject to the new travel prohibition. Canadian citizens, permanent residents, and individuals registered under the Indian Act who have travelled to any of the three countries DRC, South Sudan, or Uganda will still be permitted entry, though they’ll undergo a health screening upon arrival and must isolate for 21 days, just as before.
Prior to the initial rollout of restrictions in May, government officials estimated that around 350 travellers arrive in Canada each week from the DRC, Uganda, and South Sudan combined. Most land in Toronto, Montreal, or Vancouver. Roughly 60 percent of that traffic is made up of Canadian citizens or permanent residents, while the remaining 40 percent are foreign nationals the group now barred from entry if they’ve recently been in Congo.
Canada’s move follows similar action taken by its neighbors. The United States, through the CDC and the Department of Homeland Security, imposed its own immediate entry ban on foreign travellers from the DRC, Uganda, and South Sudan back on May 22. Mexico had already gone a step further, issuing its own travel ban to the affected region on May 17.
Both the newly announced measures and the earlier May restrictions are set to remain active until August 29, though officials could adjust the timeline depending on how the outbreak evolves.
