Coronavirus variant identified in South Africa has reached the United States with already two cases having been diagnosed in South Carolina.

This comes as President Joe Biden announced imposing a ban on most non-U.S. citizens entering the country who have recently been in South Africa starting Saturday in a bid to contain the spread of a new variant of COVID-19, a senior U.S. public health official told Reuters.

"We are adding South Africa to the restricted list because of the concerning variant present that has already spread beyond South Africa," said Dr. Anne Schuchat, the CDC's principal deputy director, in an interview Sunday.

She added the agency was "putting in place this suite of measures to protect Americans and also to reduce the risk of these variants spreading and worsening the current pandemic.”

(With input from agencies)