President Joe Biden announced Friday the US will restrict travel from South Africa and seven other countries starting Monday as a new coronavirus variant has emerged.
Acting on advice from Dr. Anthony Fauci and the CDC, the Biden administration will restrict travel from South Africa, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Namibia, Lesotho, Eswatini, Mozambique and Malawi.
The decision to restrict travel comes as the federal government is still attempting to learn more about the new variant. 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 yet know.
Biden was briefed today on the new coronavirus variant circulating in southern Africa, he said in the announcement.
Officials, who are still learning more about the variant, said the policy was implemented out of an abundance of caution given the WHO has now identified this as a variant of concern.
“Our scientists and public health officials are working quickly to learn more about this variant,” one official said.
