U.S. – Biden Administration considering lifting of travel ban on South African countries
President Joe Biden said he’s considering lifting travel restrictions on people arriving from southern African countries where the omicron variant of coronavirus was first identified, after it became the dominant strain in the U.S.
The ban has come under increasing scrutiny as the strain is already the predominant one in new cases in the US, and has run rampant in other countries that have not seen similar travel restrictions.”I’m considering reversing (the travel ban), I’m going to talk to my team in the next couple days,” Biden told reporters after a speech on Covid-19 at the White House.
The U.S. restricted travel from eight African countries – Botswana, Eswatini, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa and Zimbabwe at the end of November after scientists in southern Africa first discovered the omicron variant.
Other countries that had previously announced travel bans against countries in southern Africa, including Canada, have since dropped the travel restrictions.
