New US travel restrictions for southern Africa have gone into effect, as the Biden administration seeks to address concerns about the Omicron variant.
The Biden administration is restricting travel from South Africa, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Namibia, Lesotho, Eswatini, Mozambique and Malawi.
Biden signed an official statement Friday restricting the travel of people “physically present” in the countries for the “14-day period before they entered or attempted to enter the United States.” , starting one minute past midnight on Monday morning.
The statement includes a list of those exempt from the new restrictions, including U.S. citizens, lawful permanent residents, and non-citizens who are spouses of citizens or permanent residents.
The director of the National Institutes of Health on Sunday emphasized that The Covid-19 variant “should double” on vaccination efforts and other mitigation strategies.
“It’s definitely not good news. We still don’t know what impact this will have. We have to redouble our efforts to use the tools we have, which are injections. vaccines and boosters, and to make sure we’re getting to the rest of the world, which the United States is doing more than any other country,” NIH Director, Dr. Francis Collins told CNN’s Dana Bash on “State of the Union.”
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