President Biden lifted his travel ban on eight African countries imposed at the onset of the Omicron variant on Tuesday.
The highly contagious but potentially less deadly Omicron strain is now the dominant Covid variant in the US, and was first discovered by scientists in South Africa in late November. Biden quickly moved to ban travel from South Africa, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Namibia, Lesotho, Eswatini, Mozambique and Malawi in response.
Citing stricter testing requirements for international travelers, Biden said such a ban was no longer necessary, as the Omicron variant is now widespread in the US and many other nations beyond sub-Saharan Africa.
‘Having learned more about the Omicron variant in the past several weeks, the CDC now recommends lifting the travel restrictions,’ Biden said in a statement. He noted that the CDC now requires travelers to test negative for Covid-19 within one day of international traveler rather than within three days prior to travel. The Biden administration also requires international travelers to be vaccinated.
The CDC encourages – but does not mandate – international air travelers to get a new COVID-19 test three to five days after arriving in the United States.
President Biden lifted his travel ban on eight African countries imposed at the onset of the Omicron variant on Tuesday
The lift will take effect at midnight on Dec. 31.
Biden’s decision to restrict travel was questioned by lawmakers and health experts, including those at the World Health Organization (WHO), who said that the president was unnecessarily punishing African countries who had diligently been the first to detect the variant.
Covid cases in the U.S. have doubled over the past two weeks, as the Omicron variant takes hold in the nation. On average, 235,269 Americans are testing positive for the virus every day, a 99 percent increase over the last two weeks.
The doubling comes after 512,553 new cases were reported in the U.S. on Monday, according to Johns Hopkins University. The large figure is the product of a multi-day build up of unreported cases over the Christmas holiday that finally were logged to start the week.
It comes a day after the CDC revised its official quarantine guidelines, recommending an infected person quarantine for five days minimum, if they are asymptomatic, halving the previous ten day quarantine guidelines.
COVID cases in the US have exploded over the past two weeks, as the newly discovered Omicron strain begins to take hold in the country
America is currently averaging 198,326 cases every day, an 68 percent increase over the past two weeks
Both hospitalizations and deaths have remained steady in recent weeks, not rising at the same pace as cases
Meanwhile, the Biden administration is grappling with a major shortage of Covid-19 testing, with the president admitting ‘it’s clearly not enough’ as he faces criticism that his administration’s plan to send 500 million free tests to the public is too little, too late.
Many Americans spent the holiday weekend waiting in long lines for PCR tests or scouring store shelves in vain for rapid at-home test kits, as the national shortage potentially fueled further transmission.
On Monday, Biden acknowledged the chaotic scenes as Americans desperately sought out testing amid the case surge and as they looked to safely gather over the holiday.
‘Seeing how tough it was for some folks to get a test this weekend shows that we have more work to do,’ said Biden as he spoke to the nation’s governors in a virtual meeting.
‘It’s not enough. It’s clearly not enough. If we’d have known, we’d have gone harder, quicker if we could have,’ the president added.
