WASHINGTON – The US Government notified this Friday that starting next Monday it will place restrictions on travelers from South Africa and seven other southern African countries due to the appearance of a new variant of the coronavirus called “omicron.”
“As a precautionary measure until we have more information, I am ordering additional restrictions on air travel from South Africa and seven other countries,” President Joe Biden said in a statement sent by the White House.
According to the statement, in addition to South Africa, the restrictions include Mozambique, Namibia, Zimbabwe, Botswana, Lesotho, Malawi and Eswatini.
The government referred only to “restrictions on air traffic”, and did not give more details about what exactly the implications are at the moment.
The new restrictions will go into effect on Nov. 29 and as information and knowledge of the omicron variant advances, Biden said, other decisions could be made based on what science and the medical team of advisers advise.
President Biden made the decision after hearing suggestions from his chief medical adviser, Anthony Fauci, and officials at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
The restrictions will not affect US citizens or legal permanent residents of the US who are in those countries, although they will have to present a negative COVID-19 test before flying to their nation.
OMICRON PUTS PART OF THE WORLD ON AN ALERT
The announcement of the restrictions comes at the same time that the World Health Organization (WHO) declared today the new variant of the coronavirus detected in South Africa as a “risk variant” and baptized it with the Greek letter omicron.
WHO experts pointed out that the new variant appears to be more contagious than the previous ones, although there is still no data to determine whether it is more or less resistant to COVID-19 vaccines.
So far, the omicron variant has been detected in South Africa, Botswana, Hong Kong (China) and Belgium.
In addition to the US, Spain, France, Italy, the United Kingdom, Germany, the Netherlands, Singapore, Austria, Canada and Israel have also imposed or announced restrictions on travelers from southern Africa.