Washington, Jan 26 (IANS): US President Joe Biden on Monday announced measures to ban most non-US citizens travelling from South Africa from entering the US, in an effort to curb the spread of Covid-19.
According to a proclamation issued by the White House, the travel restrictions on South Africa, where a new coronavirus variant had emerged, will be effective from January 30, the Xinhua news agency reported.
Biden also reinstated travel restrictions on the Schengen area of Europe, Britain, Ireland, and Brazil, which his predecessor Donald Trump had planned to rescind effective on January 26.
US media said that the US has not yet detected any cases of the Covid-19 variant first identified in South Africa, but several states have detected the variant discovered in Britain.
US Covid-19 cases rose to 25.2 million with over 4,20,000 deaths as of Monday afternoon, according to a tally by Johns Hopkins University.