US President Joe Biden announced on Friday that as of Monday 29 November 2021 travelers from the following 8 countries in southern Africa will be barred from entry to the US because of a surge in that region of the very contagious Omicron variant of COVID-19:
- South Africa
- Botswana
- Zimbabwe
- Namibia
- Lesotho
- Eswatini
- Mozambique
- Malawi
The ban will apply to most non-US-citizens who have been in any of those countries in the past 14 days.
No cases of the Omicron variant have yet been identified in the US, and no flight bans have been announced at this time.
Canada has closed its borders to travel from those countries, and the UK and EU have announced flight bans, and countries including India, Japan, Israel, Turkey, Switzerland and the UAE have also instituted new restrictions on travel from southern Africa.
COVID-19 vaccine penetration is at single-digit levels in most sub-Saharan African countries.
This new crisis comes unfortunately at the start of the holiday travel, shopping and gathering season in North America and Europe.
