President Joe Biden has reintroduced COVID-19 travel restrictions on non-US travelers from Brazil, Ireland, the United Kingdom and 26 other European countries that allow travel across open borders
WASHINGTON – President Joe Biden on Monday reinstated COVID-19’s travel restrictions on most non-US travelers from Brazil, Ireland, the United Kingdom and 26 other European countries that may travel across open borders. He also added South Africa to the list.
White House press secretary Jen Psaki said South Africa had been added to the limited list due to concerns about a variant of the virus that had spread beyond the country.
“This is not the time to lift restrictions on international travel,” Psaki said.
The ban on Biden is to reinstate entry to almost all foreign nationals who were on the restricted list in any of the countries at any stage during the 14 days prior to their scheduled trip to the US.
The leading American expert on infectious diseases, dr. Anthony Fauci, called Biden’s decision to reinstate the travel restrictions – and add South Africa to the list – ‘wise’ in a round of television interviews.
“We are concerned about the mutation in South Africa,” Fauci told CBS This Morning. “We are looking at it very actively. It is clearly a different and more ominous than the one in the UK, and I think it is very sensible to restrict travel of non-citizens. ‘
Biden honored an order from President Donald Trump in his last days of ministry for the relaxation of travel restrictions from Tuesday. Trump’s move was made in conjunction with a new requirement from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that all international travelers to the U.S. must receive a negative test for COVID-19 within three days of boarding their flight.
Last week, Biden elaborated on the CDC requirement, ordering federal agencies to require international travelers to be quarantined upon arrival in the U.S. and to undergo another negative test to slow the spread of the virus. These requirements also take effect on Tuesday.
The State Department said in a statement that U.S. citizens should reconsider non-essential travel abroad, pointing out that access to testing remains difficult in some countries. The agency also warned Americans to consider before the international trip how they would pay for health care and additional living expenses if they became infected or were hospitalized.
The 26 European countries affected by the restoration of the ban are part of the border-free Schengen zone. These include Austria, Belgium, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Italy, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain . , Sweden and Switzerland.
Biden’s team has announced that it will reintroduce travel restrictions, but the addition of South Africa to the limited travel list underscores the new government’s concerns about mutations in the virus.
The South African variant was not discovered in the United States, but another variant – originating from the United Kingdom – was found in several states.
Fauci said that the effectiveness of COVID-19 vaccines is a very small, modest reduction against these variants, but that there are enough cushions with the vaccines that we still consider them effective against the British strain and the south. African tension. ”
But he warned that more mutations were possible and said scientists were preparing to adjust the vaccines if necessary.
“We really need to make sure we get started, and we need to prepare it already if necessary to upgrade the vaccines,” Fauci said. “We are already taking steps in that direction, despite the fact that the vaccines we have now are working.”