US to lift southern Africa travel restrictions at end of 2021

The Omicron variant of Sars-CoV-2 is now the dominant strain of the coronavirus in the United States

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President Joe Biden will lift the travel restrictions imposed on eight African countries last month at one minute past midnight on 31 December, a White House spokesperson has said.

Kevin Munoz, a White House Assistant Press Secretary, said in a Tweet on Friday that Mr Biden would be lifting the restrictions next week after Reuters reported the upcoming move.

Mr Munoz added that Mr Biden’s decision was “recommended by the [Centers for Disease Control and Prevention],” which was also the agency that recommended he close US airports to incoming travelers from South Africa, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Namibia, Lesotho, Eswatini, Mozambique and Malawi on 29 November.

Since then, any non-US citizen or permanent resident who has been present in any of those countries within 14 days of attempting to enter the US on a non-immigrant visa has been denied entry.

At the time Mr Biden had imposed the restrictions, the Omicron variant of Sars-CoV-2 had recently been discovered by South African scientists and declared a “variant of concern” by the World Health Organisation.

“I’ve decided that we’re going to be cautious – make sure there is no travel to and from South Africa and six other countries in that region and – except for American citizens who are able to come back. But we don’t know a lot about the variant except that it is of great concern; it seems to spread rapidly,” Mr Biden said at the time.

Mr Munoz, the White House spokesperson, said the restrictions had served their purpose because they “gave us time to understand Omicron” and determine that “our existing vaccines work” against it, especially when supplemented with booster shots.