Under the Joe Biden administration, the United States (US) has ramped up its defence against Covid-19 and the latest move is a travel ban on South Africa and 29 other countries.
US travel ban on South Africa: What we know
As reported by Reuters, the US will close its borders to non-US travellers from South Africa due to the rapid spread of the new variant of Covid-19 that “has already spread beyond SA.”
“We are adding SA to the restricted list because of the concerning variant present that has already spread beyond SA,” Dr Anne Schuchat, the principal deputy director at the Centers for Disease Control’s (CDC), said.
The travel ban comes into effect from Saturday 30 January 2021 and will remain in place indefinitely. Part of this list is Brazil, the United Kingdom (UK), Ireland and 26 other European countries.
Full list of countries with a travel ban on SA
The US joins a growing list of countries not accepting travellers from SA. Recently, Emirates Airways announced in a statement that it has grounded all flights to and from SA. However, in their reasoning, the Dubai airline noted that this was for operational reasons.
With the continuing spread of this new Covid-19 variant, more countries are expected to join the following list of nations not accepting SA travellers:
- United Kingdom
- Unites States
- Netherlands
- Germany
- El Salvador
- Israel
- France
- Turkey
- Brazil
Please note: There may be more countries with travel bans in place for SA travellers. We will continue to update this list as new information trickles in.