The United States will lift the travel ban on several southern African nations next week when the Omicron variant of Covid is first detected, officials said Friday.
Countries around the world restricted travel from southern Africa after the variant was detected in South Africa, according to Omicron reported to the World Health Organization WHO on November 24.
WHO and the United Nations spoke out against the travel bans, and officials in South Africa said they were being punished for identifying the strain and being transparent.
Kevin Munoz, the White House assistant press secretary, said on Twitter that the restrictions gave us time to understand Omicron and we know our existing vaccines work against Omicron.
He said the travel ban would be lifted on December 31.
A senior White House official stated that international travelers from the eight affected countries would not have a significant impact on US cases because of Omicron present in the United States and globally.
During the travel pause, President Biden reduced the time for pre-departure testing to one day, instead of three days. Travelers from these eight countries will be subject to the same strict protocols, the official said.
The ban was applied to Malawi, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Namibia, Lesotho, Eswatini, Mozambique and South Africa.
Holiday festivities are expected to drive up Covid cases in the United States, where the heavily mutated Omicron variant is pushing some stretched hospitals and exhausted health workers to the brink.
In some regions of the country, Omicron now accounts for more than 90 percent of all cases.
The seven-day average of new daily cases is about to surpass the Delta peak seen in September, according to the non-profit website Covid Act Now.
In some states, intensive care units are running at near-capacity.
The US health authorities are banking on vaccinations to lower the number of severe Covid cases, and inoculation numbers have been strong all week.
President Joe Biden has announced the purchase of 500 million rapid tests by the federal government this week. The additional tests are not expected to be available until January.
Infection rates are going to be soaring across South Africa as a result of the Omicron variant, but fewer people have died or needed hospital treatment compared to previous waves of Covid, local health officials say.
Omicron is known to be more contagious than previous variants of Covid 19 but appears to cause a less severe illness than its predecessors.