US Bans Travel From Southern Africa to Buy Time to Learn About COVID-19 Variant: Fauci

National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Director Anthony Fauci testifies before the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee about the ongoing response to the COVID-19 pandemic in the Dirksen Senate Office Building on Capitol Hill in Washington on Nov. 4, 2021. Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

The United States banned travel from southern African countries to try to delay the introduction of a newly detected virus variant, White House chief medical adviser Dr. Anthony Fauci said on Nov. 27.

“The issue of blocking travel from a given country is to just give us time to assess it better—that’s the reason for doing that, not any reason to panic,” Fauci, the longtime director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said on the “Today” show.