The Biden administration announced it will lift it's temporary travel ban that was placed on eight South African countries to slow the spread of the omicron variant beginning Dec.31.
The news comes after other countries, including Canada, lifted similar travel restrictions. Earlier this week, Biden announced consideration of reversing the restrictions the U.S imposed late November.
The first Omicron case was first reported in South Africa on Nov.11. The rising infection rates caused by Omicron resulted in the United States closing it's borders from South Africa, Zimbabwe, Botswana, Eswatini, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique and Namibia to limit spread of a COVID-19 variant. Most noncitizens who have been in those countries within the past 14 days have not been allowed to enter the U.S.
“We put the travel ban on just to see how much time we had before it hit here so we can begin to decide what we needed by looking at what's happening in other countries,” Biden said during an address to the nation Tuesday. “But we're past that now."
The eight countries are considered to have a "very high" COVID-19 risk, and travel is still not recommended by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). With a winter surge of the Omicron variant on the rise, data released by the CDC illustrated the omicron variant accounting for more than 73 percent of new cases in the U.S. In the week beginning Dec.15, the county has seen an additional 16 Omicron cases bringing the region’s known cases to 22.
An advisory issued through the County and the Hospitalization Association of San Diego issued an advisory that urged for residents to take precautionary measures such as vaccination, attaining a booster shot due to this rise in cases.
Biden implemented a new rule during the travel ban that requires all international travelers, regardless of nationality or vaccination status to test negative within a day of their departures to the United States. The implementaiton of a federal mask mandate fir airplanes is extended trough March 18.
