WASHINGTON – The US will prohibit journey for non-U.S. residents from South Africa and 7 different nations beginning on Monday, a part of a worldwide effort to stem the unfold of the closely mutated omicron variant of Covid-19, in accordance with senior Biden administration officers.
Along with South Africa, the affected nations are Botswana, Zimbabwe, Namibia, Lesotho, Eswatini, Mozambique and Malawi.
The choice got here lower than three weeks after the Biden administration lifted pandemic journey restrictions on guests from greater than 30 nations.
President Joe Biden was briefed on the variant Friday by White Home chief medical advisor Dr. Anthony Fauci, as a rising checklist of nations issued their very own journey bans.
Canada, the European Union and the U.Okay. all introduced journey restrictions on southern Africa Friday, even as Belgian officials announced that a number of circumstances of the omicron variant had already been recognized there.
Additionally on Friday, the World Well being Group assigned the newly recognized variant the Greek letter omicron and formally acknowledged the pressure, beforehand known as lineage B.1.1.529, as a “variant of concern.”
Well being specialists are deeply concerned in regards to the transmissibility of the omicron variant on condition that it has an uncommon constellation of mutations and a profile that’s totally different from different variants of concern. It isn’t clear how extreme infections can be for vaccinated sufferers.
It’s feared a pointy upswing of Covid circumstances in South Africa’s Gauteng province — the place the closely mutated pressure of the virus was first recognized — may imply it has better potential to flee prior immunity than different variants.
The designation of a brand new variant of concern coupled with mounting alarm from well being officers sent global markets into a tailspin on Friday. Oil costs and leisure shares took heavy losses on the information.
Airline and other travel stocks plunged Friday. The brand new restrictions come simply as carriers and aerospace producers like Boeing have been upbeat a couple of resurgence in journey demand, significantly worldwide routes subsequent yr.
There are 122 flights between the U.S. and South Africa scheduled for December, in accordance with aviation consulting agency Cirium.
United, which has essentially the most scheduled service with 87 flights, is ready to renew nonstop flights between its Newark, New Jersey, hub and Cape City subsequent month. A spokeswoman mentioned no modifications are presently deliberate.
Delta has 35 scheduled flights between the U.S. and South Africa in December.
— CNBC’s Sam Meredith and Robert Towey contributed reporting.
That is breaking information. Test again for updates.
