Photo Credit: (THE CANADIAN PRESS/Paul Chiasson)

The federal government has announced it would make some changes to newly implemented restrictions on travel from South Africa, allowing Canadians to return home.

Canadians who provide a negative PCR COVID-19 test from an accredited lab in South Africa within 48 hours of departing will be allowed to return home for the next week.

The exemption also allows traveler’s to fly from Johannesburg or Cape Town to Frankfurt, Germany on a Lufthansa flight that leaves on or before December. 13 and then travel by either Lufthansa or Air Canada from Germany to Canada.

The shift comes after many Canadians spoke out about the clashing restrictions that they say made it effectively impossible to return home.