President Biden recently imposed a new coronavirus travel ban, even though top advisor Dr. Anthony Fauci warned that the U.S. did not have sufficient information to impose one. Dr. Fauci stated that COVID-19 was spreading through Africa and raised a red flag that this might be an issue, but that we don’t understand it all yet. He stressed the importance of testing.

Fauci said that he would make a decision about a travel ban as soon as they had more information and put these things on the table. He said they can’t rush to gather the scientific data and that they need to make informed decisions about such things.

He continued by saying that they need to find out if the variant does not evade the vaccinations.

It is not clear what additional information was required by the administration to prohibit travel from eight different countries. Biden stated that he made the decision after meeting Fauci.

He said it was after he was briefed about the Omicron variant by Dr. Fauci and members of our COVID Response Team. He said he is ordering additional restrictions on air travel from South Africa and seven countries.

Similar travel restrictions will be imposed in about a dozen countries, including the U.K. American citizens and lawful permanent residents will be exempt from travel restrictions. However, international travelers must have negative results before they can travel.