Starting Monday, the United States is restricting the ability of non-citizens from South Africa and seven other countries to travel into the country, CNBC reports.
The new virus variant, named Omikron, is causing concern worldwide. On Friday, the EU, among others, decided to stop all travel from South Africa to the union. Now the US has also decided to restrict entry from several countries – South Africa, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Namibia, Lesotho, Swaziland, Mozambique and Malawi.
South Africa was the first to raise the alarm about the new virus variant, B.1.1529, which has since been named Omikron. The variant has also been detected in Botswana, Hong Kong and Belgium. Omikron is said to carry an unusual constellation of mutations and be potentially more contagious than previous variants.
The World Health Organization (WHO) has said that it is studying the newly discovered variant and advises against hasty reactions.
