US President Joe Biden approved lifting COVID-19 related travel restrictions on eight African countries, RT reported on Wednesday.
The reasons behind imposing such restrictions last November was the US hope of restricting the emergence of currently widespread Omicron variant, however, Biden said later that those measures "are no longer necessary to protect the public health."
South Africa, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Namibia, Lesotho, Eswatini, Mozambique, and Malawi are the eight countries will be freed from the latest US ban entry starting from December 31st.
Biden pointed out: "Having learned more about the Omicron variant in the past several weeks, the CDC now recommends lifting the travel restrictions."
"Since I issued that proclamation, our Nation's health officials, in collaboration with the South African scientists who originally reported the variant, have made substantial progress in understanding the Omicron variant."
The new strain was designated as a source of concern by the WHO because it has a high number of mutations (32), potentially making it more transmissible and deadly.
The WHO has given it the name “Omicron,” which is the Greek alphabet’s 15th letter.
Following news of the new variant, the US, the EU, Canada, Israel, Australia, and other countries have imposed travel restrictions on many southern African countries due to health concerns.
The WHO said that the omicron COVID variant is likely to spread further and poses a “very high” global risk, warning that surges of COVID infections caused by the variant of concern could have “severe consequences” for some areas.
Omicron also could be somehow resistant to vaccines; therefore, several vaccine makers added booster shots to raise the efficiency of the vaccine’s antibodies, such as Pfizer, and Moderna.
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