Washington (US), December 25: The United States will lift COVID-related travel restrictions on eight southern African countries on Dec. 31, the White House announced Friday.
"On Dec. 31, (President Joe Biden) will lift the temporary travel restrictions on Southern Africa countries," and the decision was based on the recommendation from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), White House Assistant Press Secretary Kevin Munoz said on Twitter.
Announced on Nov. 29, the travel ban barred non-U.S. citizens from entering the United States if they had traveled to South Africa, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Namibia, Lesotho, Eswatini, Mozambique or Malawi within 14 days prior to their scheduled arrival in the United States.
Munoz said the restrictions "gave us time to understand" the highly transmissible Omicron variant of the coronavirus, which first emerged in southern Africa and soon spread around the world, now making up over 70 percent of new cases in the United States, per CDC data.
Getting fully vaccinated and boosted is still an effective way to fight against Omicron, he said.
Source: Xinhua