U.S. Announces New Travel Ban As New COVID-19 Omicron Variant Spreads

With the emergence of a new COVID-19 strain, the United States has announced a travel ban from South Africa and several other nearby countries.

The White House announced the restrictions on Friday, and they will go into effect on Monday. The “precautionary measure” comes after South African scientists alerted health officials to the new variant on Tuesday. The new variant has already been identified in South Africa, Botswana, Israel, Hong Kong, and Belgium. Thursday, the United Kingdom, Canada, and multiple countries announced similar travel limitations on South Africa and surrounding areas.

The travel ban does not affect American residents or permanent U.S. residents. It applies to travelers from South Africa, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Namibia, Lesotho, Eswatini, Mozambique, and Malawi.

The World Health Organization has categorized the latest variant as a highly transmissible virus, which is the same category where they previously placed the Delta strain. Officials are worried about whether or not the current COVID-19 vaccines are effective against the new strain, which has a “large number of mutations.”

This new travel ban comes nearly three weeks after President Biden lifted the prior ban on several countries, including South Africa. Malawi, Namibia, and Mozambique were included in that ban lift and were excluded from the vaccine requirement due to low availability in those countries.

Biden defended the renewed restrictions, stating that the U.S. is “going to be cautious” until more is known about the quickly spreading variant.