Biden reinstates US COVID travel restrictions, adds South Africa

“We are adding South Africa to the restricted list because of the concerning variant present that has already spread beyond South Africa,” Dr Anne Schuchat, the principal deputy director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), said in an interview with the Reuters news agency.

The South African variant, also known as the 501Y V2 variant, is 50 percent more infectious and has been detected in at least 20 countries.

The CDC will not, as it said on January 12, consider granting temporary waivers to airlines to exempt some travellers from countries with limited testing capacity, but humanitarian exemptions will be considered on a case-by-case basis.

CDC officials noted 120 countries currently have mandatory COVID-19 testing requirements for international travel.

The restriction, along with the new South Africa ones, mean most people who are not US citizens and have been in one of those countries within the last 14 days will not be able to travel to the US.