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President Joe Biden on Tuesday issued a proclamation revoking controversial journey restrictions focusing on southern Africa the place the ultra-transmissible omicron coronavirus variant was first detected in late November.

The journey restrictions on eight nations in southern Africa—Botswana, Eswatini/Swaziland, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, and Zimbabwe—can be lifted at 12:01am ET on December 31.

The revocation was lengthy sought by public well being consultants, who say such journey bans are ineffective and dangerous.