CNN
Updated 1:12 PM ET, Tue December 28, 2021
(CNN) President Joe Biden issued a presidential proclamation Tuesday revoking a proclamation put in place last month that enacted travel restrictions on eight southern African nations, including South Africa, as the Omicron variant began to spread.
The proclamation repeals the ban as of 12:01 a.m. ET on December 31.
CNN had previously reported Biden’s intent to lift the restrictions.
The travel restrictions had come under fire across the globe, described by United Nations Secretary General António Guterres as “travel apartheid.” Biden administration officials repeatedly defended the move as an action to give the US more time to understand the variant and its spread.