Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau warned on Tuesday that the appearance of the ommicron variant of the coronavirus could force his government to introduce new restrictions on access to the country.

Trudeau’s warning comes as Canada confirmed today that the number of cases of the new strain of the coronavirus discovered in the country has risen to five.

Trudeau told media in Ottawa that the government is “monitoring the situation closely with omicron”.

The Prime Minister recalled that Canada will only allow foreigners who have been vaccinated against Covid-19 to enter the country and that passengers arriving by plane must pass a negative test before boarding.

But he added that the Canadian government may have to impose new measures and these are being studied “very carefully”.

Canada has already banned entry to the country for foreigners who have traveled through seven countries in southern Africa in recent weeks. But the first case of ommicron discovered in the country was a person from Nigeria, a country not on the list.

Today, Hong Kong authorities announced a ban on Canadians entry due to the presence of the ommicron variant in the North American country.

Also today, a ban went into effect for unvaccinated people traveling by train or plane within Canada and it was learned that hundreds of people were trying to enter the country with false vaccination certificates and negative tests.

According to the Canada Border Service Agency, as of Oct. 31, 374 attempts were made to enter Canada with false negative tests and 92 with falsified certificates.