variant of concern and giving it the name omicron investors are rattled. cnn s jeff zeleny is traveling with the president in nantucket. pete muntean joins us from outside washington. this will be startling news to a lot of americans doing their black friday shopping. why is the administration waiting until monday to restrict travel? reporter: well, jim, president biden said that was a decision based on his medical team, the experts. they said it simply takes time to put in a travel ban. it takes time with the airlines, and the white house had a phone conversation with airline executives earlier today, we re told. president biden also spoke on the phone with dr. anthony fauci and other experts on his covid team. they said it simply takes time to put these travel bans in place, but it will be south africa and seven other neighboring countries there. but president biden also used this as an opportunity to urge all americans to get vaccinated. every american who has not been
african region, the president acknowledging there s still a lot that needs to be learned about this variant, but for now he believes this is the right approach. take a listen. i decided we re going to be cautious. we don t know a lot about the variant except that it is a big concern. it spreads rapidly. i spent about a hoff hour this morning with my covid team let by dr. fauci. reporter: so that decision was made in consultation with dr. anthony fauci, and the rest of his coronavirus team. one things that officials are hoping is that issuing this restriction, these new travel restrictions will essentially give the administration more time to learn about this variant, and what it could potentially do if it were to make its way to the united states. these restrictions are set to go in place on monday. officials say they are acting as quickly as possible, but that that time is needed to issue directives to the tsa, and also work with airlines as they are trying to put these
Restrictions will buy the u.s. more time to learn about the variant. the world health organ aceh moving quickly, and they gave it a name, omicron. investors around the world of rattled, the dow jones logging its worst day in more than a year. arlette scenes is live from nantucket, pete muntean is outside reagan airport. what did the president have to say today? reporter: jim, president biden said he wants to take a cautious a3r067 when it comes to this new omicron variant. that s why he s decided to issue restrictions in that southern