President Joe Biden will restrict travel from South Africa and seven other countries starting on Monday, following the detection on a highly transmissible new variant of COVID discovered there.
Those countries are Botswana, Zimbabwe, Namibia, Lesotho, Eswatini, Mozambique, and Malawi, the White House said on Friday.
‘The policy was implemented out of an abundance of caution,’ a senior administration official said.
The move follows similar travel bans by the UK and other European countries.
The decision was made on the advice of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the COVID-19 Response Team, and Dr. Anthony Fauci, the President’s Chief Medical Advisor.
‘Our scientists and public health officials are working quickly to learn more about this variant,’ the official said.
The US has announced restrictions on travel from eight African countries hours after White House COVID tsar Anthony Fauci, pictured, said they were being considered
The policy does not apply to American citizens and lawful permanent residents. As with all international travelers, they must still test negative prior to travel, the White House said.
Further details on what new restrictions will be imposed on non-US citizens and green card holders are expected to be announced imminently.
‘We are in close contact with the Southern African public health officials and working closely with them to understand more,’ the senior administration official.
It comes amid fears of the newly-emerged Nu COVID variant, which scientists fear could be the most infectious strain of the virus to date.
Earlier this morning, White House COVID tsar Dr Anthony Fauci told CNN that the US will had no immediate plans to restrict travel from South Africa, where a new ‘super mutant’ variant of COVID-19 is panicking scientists, until officials can study the variant more, Dr. Anthony Fauci said on Friday despite the UK and some European countries banning travel.
The World Health Organization has named the new variant Omicron.
It remains unclear exactly how deadly it is among unvaccinated people, and American health agencies are yet to make any form of warning about it but there are fears it is more transmissible than any other variant yet and that it may also render some vaccines ineffective.
South African health officials are trying to calm other countries and have called the sudden panic a ‘storm in a teacup’.
Both Pfizer and Moderna have said they can quickly update their vaccines if they need to to take the new variant on.