President Joe Biden announced on Friday that the US would ban travel from South Africa and seven other countries starting Monday new coronavirus version has emerged.
Acting on the advice of the country’s top infectious disease expert, Dr. Anthony Fauci, and the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Biden administration will restrict travel to and from South Africa, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Namibia, Lesotho, Eswatini, Mozambique and Malawi.
Biden signed an official proclamation on Friday night prohibiting travel of people “physically present” in countries “before their entry into, or attempted entry into, the United States during a 14-day period” “
The proclamation lists people exempt from the new restrictions, including U.S. citizens, lawful permanent residents, and non-citizens who are spouses of citizens or permanent residents.
It says it will remain in effect until terminated by the president and will not apply to any incoming flight into the US that departs before 12:01 a.m. EST on Monday.
The decision to restrict travel comes as the federal government is still trying to learn more about the new version, called Omicron. They need to see more sequencing, but after discussing what they’ve seen so far, officials decided to halt travel from these other countries, out of concern about what they don’t know yet.
He said in the announcement that Biden was briefed on Friday about the new coronavirus version circulating in southern Africa.
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