the United States will reopen its borders to travelers from eight African countries on December 31

The United States will lift travel restrictions on eight African countries on December 31 after just over a month, a White House spokesperson said on Twitter on Friday (December 24th). These restrictions were imposed to slow the spread of the Omicron variant. People from South Africa, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Namibia, Lesotho, Eswatini, Mozambique and Malawi are currently prohibited from arriving on American soil, a decision that was announced on November 26. “by excess of precaution”, recalled the White House.

The US executive assures, in a statement sent by a senior White House official, that “two essential reasons” decided to lift the restrictions. First, the observation that “Current vaccines protect effectively against a severe form associated with Omicron, especially after a booster dose”. Then the fact that “international travelers from these countries will not have a significant impact on the number of cases in the United States”, now that the Omicron variant is widely present in the country. The implementation and then maintenance of these travel restrictions, weighing only on southern Africa as the new variant spread at high speed around the world, drew much criticism from the Joe Biden administration.