The US to Ease Travel Restrictions to Southern African Countries

The Biden administration is looking to ease travel restrictions on Southern African countries according to Dr. Anthony Fauci on Monday. On November 29, The US banned foreign nationals coming from eight southern African countries.

He said that “We likely are going to pull back on that pretty soon because we have enough infection in our own country”. Fauci added that “We’re letting in people from other countries that have as much or more infection than the Southern African countries”.

It is not clear when will the US ease its travel restrictions on southern African countries. However, officials said that it could happen this week.

“Punished” for the Discovery of the Omicron Variant

After the US announced travel restrictions on African countries including South Africa, the Southern African foreign ministry criticized the move. According to the statement, “Excellent science should be applauded and not punished”

The statement added that the travel restrictions were “akin to punishing South Africa for its advanced genomic sequencing and the ability to detect new variants quicker”.

New Testing Protocol

The US now requires inbound travelers to provide a negative COVID19 test a day before boarding. Also, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention encourages post-arrival testing on international travelers.

This week, the CDC started providing free at-home COVID19 test kits in some airports. The agency said that “This initiative will quickly increase access to post-arrival COVID-19 testing for international travelers arriving in the United States”.

Omicron is Spreading Faster than Delta

The World Health Organization said that the omicron variant is spreading faster than the delta variant. WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said that “There is now consistent evidence that Omicron is spreading significantly faster than the Delta variant”.

Israel decided to put the US on its no-fly list over concerns of the new omicron variant. Other countries included in the no-fly list are Italy, Belgium, Germany, Hungary, Morocco, Portugal, Canada, Switzerland, and Turkey.