coronavirus
The travel restrictions will begin Monday, according to a senior administration official.
People line up to get on the Air France flight to Paris at OR Tambo International Airport in Johannesburg, South Africa, on Friday. A slew of nations moved to stop air travel from Southern Africa in reaction to news of a new, potentially more transmissible Covid-19 variant that has been detected in South Africa. | Jerome Delay/AP Photo
By MYAH WARD
11/26/2021 02:06 PM EST
Updated: 11/26/2021 02:42 PM EST
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The Biden administration announced plans on Friday to ban travel to the United States from South Africa and seven other countries, just hours after a new coronavirus variant was deemed a highly transmissible virus of concern.
The travel restrictions will begin Monday, affecting South Africa, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Namibia, Lesotho, Eswatini, Mozambique and Malawi, according to a senior administration official. The administration’s decision was in response to advice from Anthony Fauci, the president’s chief medical adviser, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the official said. Roughly a dozen countries took similar action on Friday.
President Joe Biden, who is in Nantucket for the holiday, was briefed on the new variant Friday. He urged fully vaccinated Americans to get booster shots and the unvaccinated to get the “life-saving protection.” Biden also addressed the global community in his statement, saying the new variant shows the pandemic won’t end until vaccines are readily available around the world. He said the U.S. has donated more vaccines than every country combined, calling on others to match “America’s speed and generosity.”