The main epidemiologist of the Government U.S, Anthony Fauci, said this Sunday that he expects the US to review its restrictions on trip from South Africa and other African countries within “a reasonable period of time.”
The travel ban imposed by Washington a week ago has been harshly criticized, even by the World Health Organization (WHO), for “penalizing” those countries after detecting the new variant of Covid-19, omicron.
Fauci acknowledged in an interview with CNN that this measure was taken to “buy time” at a time when little details of the variant were known.
“Hopefully, we will be able to lift this travel ban in a reasonable period of time,” added the epidemiologist.
Since these restrictions came into effect, omicron infections have been reported in the United States in at least five states in the country.
Washington’s ban affects travelers from South Africa, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Namibia, Lesotho, Eswatini, Mozambique and Malawi.
Fauci pointed out that the US authorities are analyzing the evolution of this variant “very carefully every day” and reiterated that it is still too early to determine its degree of aggressiveness.
In the United States, the country hardest hit by the pandemic with more than 788,000 deaths, almost 60% of the population has the complete vaccination schedule and 22% have also already received the booster dose of the available serums.
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