WASHINGTON, Jan. 25 (Xinhua) -- U.S. President Joe Biden on Monday announced measures to ban most non-U.S. citizens traveling from South Africa from entering the United States, in an effort to curb the spread of COVID-19.

Passengers take an escalator at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York, the United States, March 13, 2020. (Photo: Xinhua)

According to a proclamation issued by the White House, the travel restrictions on South Africa, where a new coronavirus variant had emerged, will be effective at 12:01 a.m. EST on Jan. 30.

Biden also reinstated travel restrictions on the Schengen area of Europe, Britain, Ireland, and Brazil, which his predecessor Donald Trump had planned to rescind effective on Jan. 26.

U.S. media said that the United States has not yet detected any cases of the COVID-19 variant first identified in South Africa, but several states have detected the variant discovered in Britain.

U.S. COVID-19 cases rose to 25.2 million with over 420,000 deaths as of Monday afternoon, according to a tally by Johns Hopkins University.