Supplemental Info:
Preliminary info from the White House Press Office:- On the advice of the President's Chief Medical Advisor and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Administration will restrict travel from South Africa and seven other countries starting on Monday. These include Botswana, Zimbabwe, Namibia, Lesotho, Eswatini, Mozambique, and Malawi.
- The policy was implemented out of an abundance of caution in light of a new COVID-19 variant circulating in Southern Africa. The WHO has now identified this as a variant of concern. Our scientists and public health officials are working quickly to learn more about this variant.
- President Biden has promised to take every measure necessary to keep Americans safe and defeat the pandemic, and this was a step recommended by U.S. government medical experts and the COVID-19 Response Team.
- The policy does not apply to American citizens and lawful permanent residents. As with all international travelers, they must still test negative prior to travel.
- We are in close contact with the Southern African public health officials and working closely with them to understand more.
- Approximately a dozen countries have taken similar action, including the UK and some countries in Europe.
- Over the past 10 months, the United States has worked closely with Southern Africa and the other impacted nations to help them vaccinate their populations.
- We have shipped over 275 million doses of safe and effective vaccines to 110 countries around the world. This includes 93.9 million for Africa alone, and 13.3 million to the restricted countries.
- We've worked to boost vaccine manufacturing in South Africa, including investments to produce more than 500 million single-dose regimens in Africa for Africa.
Regarding Canada:
Starting today, all foreign nationals who have travelled through South Africa, Namibia, Zimbabwe, Botswana, Lesotho and Eswatini or Mozambique in the last 14 days will be barred from entering Canada.
|
