U.S. ANNOUNCES TRAVEL BAN FOR EIGHT AFRICAN COUNTRIES IN RESPONSE TO THE DISCOVERY OF NEW OMICRON COVID-19 VARIANT
November 27, 2021
On Friday, November 26, 2021, the Biden administration announced its plan to re-institute a travel ban for foreign travelers to the United States coming from eight African countries, which include South Africa, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Namibia, Lesotho, Eswatini, Mozambique and Malawi.
The U.S. decided to institute the new travel ban in response to the discovery of the new coronavirus variant, Omicron, in South Africa, which has been deemed a highly transmissible virus of concern by the World Health Organization (“WHO”). Under the new travel ban, all non-U.S. citizens who have been in any of the eight African countries listed above within the past 14 days will be banned from travel to the U.S. and all U.S. citizens, lawful permanent residents and noncitizens who are the spouses of citizens or permanent residents returning to the U.S. from these countries will have to present a negative COVID-19 test within 24 hours of departure to the U.S.
The new travel ban went into effect at 12:01 A.M. (EDT) on Monday, November 29, 2021. If you have any questions regarding the implementation of the new travel ban, please do not hesitate to contact us.
If you have any questions, please contact Evelyn Sahr (esahr@eckertseamans.com 202-659-6622) or Drew Derco (dderco@eckertseamans.com 202-659-6665).
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