(Washington) President Joe Biden on Tuesday announced the lifting, on December 31, of the ban on entry into the United States for travelers from eight countries in southern Africa, a month after a brutal closure caused by the Omicron variant.
“Travel restrictions […] are no longer necessary to protect public health ”, specifies the president in his decree.
This reopening of the borders concerns, from Friday 12:01 a.m. (5:01 a.m. GMT), South Africa, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Namibia, Lesotho, Eswatini, Mozambique and Malawi.
This decision was taken on November 26, in the wake of many other countries, “for the sake of caution”, a White House spokesman explained, following the announcement of the discovery of the Omicron variant. in South Africa.
Joe Bien wrote on Tuesday that he had taken the decision on the advice of his health authorities, adding that the American researchers, “in collaboration with the South African scientists who detected the variant, have made significant progress in understanding the Omicron variant. “.
The level of danger is lower than initially estimated, continues the president, because “scientific experts have concluded that people vaccinated against COVID-19 are protected against serious forms” of the disease.
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 Biden administration.