US public health officials issued a directive requiring airlines to disclose passenger names and other information about those who have recently been in eight southern African countries and will turn that over to local and state public health officials, according to documents seen by Reuters.

The Centres for Disease Control and Prevention told airlines in a letter late on Tuesday that they must collect and turn over names and contact information for any travellers who within last 14 days have been to Botswana, Eswatini, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, and Zimbabwe, citing "the emergence of the Omicron variant of the virus that causes Covid-19."

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