The Government has lifted the travel ban imposed on foreign nationals who had been to six countries in the African continent, the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) announced yesterday.

“Foreign arrivals with travel history to South Africa, Namibia, Zimbabwe, Botswana, Lesotho and Eswatini (Swaziland) will now be allowed entry to the island nation,” CAA Chairman Upul Dharmadasa said.

Following the detection of the highly mutated COVID-19 variant of concern – ‘Omicron’ –, which sparked serious global worries, Sri Lanka moved to impose a ban the arrival of foreign travellers who had been to the aforementioned African countries.

Accordingly, passengers with a travel history, including transit, to these countries within the past 14 days were barred from entering the country with from 28 November.

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