President of the United States, Joe Biden, has announced that declaring a lockdown over the new omicron Variant is not yet necessary. However, the US has imposed travel bans on eight African countries including South Africa.
Why it matters
The World Health Organization has called Omicron a “variant of concern”, but says it is still not clear whether it is associated with more transmission or more risk of evading vaccines. Also, Biden has been attacked by his critics following his travel ban from South Africa saying he accused former President Donald Trump of “hysterical xenophobia” after he limited travel from China in January 2020 as the coronavirus spread in the US.