Biden to reimplement travel restrictions related to COVID-19 pandemic

The travel restrictions will affect non-U.S. citizens who have recently traveled to Brazil, South Africa, Ireland, the United Kingdom and much of continental Europe.

"We are adding South Africa to the restricted list because of the concerning variant present that has already spread beyond South Africa," CDC principal deputy director Dr. Anne Schuchat said in a Sunday interview.

She continued that the CDC will be "putting in place this suite of measures to protect Americans and also to reduce the risk of these variants spreading and worsening the current pandemic."

Former-President Trump on Jan. 18, directed that the travel bans on Europe and Brazil be lifted effective for this coming Tuesday, though, Biden has now rescinded Trump's directive. At the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic, President Trump issued a travel ban on China, to which he received harsh criticism for alleged xenophobia and racism as well as assertions that travel bans were not effective measures at preventing viral spread.

President Biden bizarrely said in a press conference Friday that there is nothing that can be done to change the trajectory of the coronavirus in the coming months, despite campaigning on supposed plan to combat the virus. "There is nothing we can do to change the trajectory of the pandemic in the next several months," he said to reporters.