Canada announced the lifting of a ban on foreign travellers from 10 African countries, while reimposing testing and warning that the Omicron variant of Covid-19 risks quickly overwhelming hospitals, AFP reports.

The travel restriction on flights from South Africa, Mozambique, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Lesotho, Eswatini, Namibia, Nigeria, Malawi and Egypt will end at 11:59 pm on Saturday, Health Minister Jean-Yves Duclos told a news conference.

The restriction had been announced last month “to slow the arrival of Omicron in Canada and buy us some time,” he said. But with Omicron now spreading within Canada it is “no longer needed.”