By David Shepardson

(Reuters) – Eight countries in southern Africa were subject to travel restrictions that the Biden administration lifted last month because of concerns regarding COVID-19 Omicron’s rapid spread, a senior administration official stated to Reuters.

If a foreign national has been banned from entering the United States for having visited one of these countries in the past 14 days, they will be permitted to fly on U.S.bound flights after 12:01 AM. ET Dec. 31,” the official stated.

In an effort to avoid the South African variant, nearly all non-U.S. citizens were barred from South Africa, Botswana and Zimbabwe on November 29.

According to the official, U.S. health authorities had suggested lifting travel restrictions as they would not have a significant effect on U.S. patients. Given the current U.S. infection rate and the high effectiveness of existing booster shots and vaccines, there is no need for an Omicron vaccine.

“This travel pause is serving its purpose. “It bought time to understand science and it allowed time to analyze variant,” an official said to Reuters. He did not wish to identify himself because the decision was not made public.

Omicron is not being kept away by this. It was obvious that we could not do this. We wanted to decrease the amount of cases that came in, especially in the early days or weeks.

These restrictions did not prevent Americans or flights from leaving southern Africa.

Anthony Fauci, a leading infectious disease expert and physician said Monday that the lifting of restrictions is likely because “we have enough infection within our country…We’re letting people in from other countries with as many or more infections than the countries in southern Africa.”

Joe Biden, the President of the United States said Tuesday that he is considering lifting restrictions.

An official stressed the temporary nature of restrictions and said that they would be removed after about a month. It was a clear indication that disclosures of new variants will not be subject to a severe penalty.

Travel restrictions for South Africa were lifted by the United States on November 8. They had been in effect since January, when they were put into place to alleviate COVID-19 fears.

Omicron prompted the United States to tighten testing procedures for international travellers and extend a requirement that travelers wear masks at airports until March 18th.

December 6th, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention increased testing regulations for international passengers arriving to the United States. This required them to submit to a COVID-19 negative test within one working day.

Prior rules allowed international passengers to present negative results within three days after their date of departure.

The CDC distributed free COVID-19 home testing kits last week to international travellers at many airports. International air passengers are encouraged to take a COVID-19 home test within three to five business days of arriving in the United States.

Last month, the CDC required airlines to release passenger information and names of those who had recently visited eight African countries.