By A Correspondent- United States President Joe Biden’s chief medical adviser, Dr Anthony Fauci has said the US is “struggling” with a decision to ban flights from countries with no declared Omicron variant like Zimbabwe, Mozambique and Namibia.

The US imposed a blanket travel ban on some of the countries in the Southern African region after South Africa announced on the 25th of November that it had detected a new coronavirus variant that would be named Omicron.

Responding to a question during a press conference, Fauci said he hoped that “this gets sorted out and lifted before it has any significant impact on your country.” 

Many countries have already slammed their borders shut to southern Africa, with Australia banning travellers from South Africa, Lesotho, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Seychelles, Mozambique, Namibia, Eswatini and Malawi.

The bans have also been strongly condemned by the World Health Organisation which said it was unnecessary. 

The US has since recorded the first cases of the new coronavirus variant.

-Online