On Monday, President Joe Biden reinstated the ban on people entering Brazil, Ireland, the United Kingdom and 26 other European countries to prevent the spread of coronavirus.
White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said South Africa had been added to the list due to the presence of a variant of the disease in that country.
“This is not the time to lift restrictions on international travel,” Psaki said.
Biden’s measure prohibits, starting Tuesday, the entry into the country of virtually all foreign nationals who have been in any of the countries indicated in the 14 days prior to their arrival in the United States.
The 26 European countries indicated are part of the Schengen Free Zone and include Austria, Belgium, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Italy, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta , The Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland.
For his part, America’s leading communicable disease expert, Dr. Anthony Fauci, said Monday that Biden’s decision was “prudent.”
“We are concerned about the mutation of the virus that has been detected in South Africa,” Fauci said in an interview with CBS This Morning.
“It simply came to our notice then. Obviously, it is a different variant, more harmful than the one detected in the United Kingdom and I think it is prudent to restrict the entry into the country of people who are not citizens “, he added.
The move is in fact a reversal of an order issued by Donald Trump in his last days as president. Trump’s order coincided with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s instructions to ban anyone from entering abroad unless they showed a negative COVID-19 test performed three days before boarding the flight.
The revocation of the measure had already been announced by Biden’s associates, but the addition of South Africa to the list revealed the government’s dismay at the virus’s mutation.
The South African version was not detected in the United States, but the British version was seen in several states of the country.
Fauci said that there is a “slight decrease” in the effectiveness of the vaccine compared to the newer variants, but that “the vaccines we have are sufficiently effective for both the British and the South African version”.
However, he warned that new mutations were possible and that experts were developing antidotes to apply them if necessary.
“We need to start preparing and we are already doing this, in order to update the vaccines if this becomes necessary,” Fauci said.
“We are taking steps in that direction, despite the fact that the vaccines we currently have are working,” he said.