WASHINGTON - Top U.S. infectious disease official Anthony Fauci said he hopes the ban on travelers from southern African countries can be lifted in a reasonable period as more information on the Omicron variant is gathered.
The U.S. put a travel ban on individuals leaving South Africa, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Namibia, Lesotho, Eswatini, Mozambique and Malawi last week in an effort to control the spread of the emerging omicron variant.
The move has faced backlash from around the world, particularly as cases have been found in the U.S.
We're looking at that very carefully on a daily basis as we're getting more and more information about cases in our own country and worldwide. Fauci said on CNN's State of the Union that we're going to be able to lift that ban within a reasonable period of time.
Fauci said that the Biden administration is reevaluating the policy in real time on a daily basis.
The omicron variant, classified by the World Health Organization as a variant of concern, is blamed for a recent surge of cases in South Africa and has sparked fears that it could be more transmissible than previous variants and resistant to vaccines.