US President Joe Biden signs executive orders for economic relief to families and businesses struck by Covid in the White House State Dining Room in Washington, DC, on January 22, 2021.
Nicholas Kamm | AFP | Getty Images
President Joe Biden will sign a travel ban on Monday for most non-US citizens entering the country that was recently in South Africa, where a new strain of Covid-19 has been identified, has a person familiar with the situation told CNBC.
Biden will also reintroduce travel restrictions on the entry of non-US citizens from the United Kingdom and Brazil, where new Covid tribes have emerged. The restrictions also apply to Ireland and much of Europe. President Donald Trump lifted the restrictions just before Biden took office.
Reuters reported for the first time on Sunday about the travel restrictions.
Dr Anne Schuchat, chief deputy director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, told the outlet that the agency is implementing this series of measures to protect Americans and also reduce the risk of these variants spreading and exacerbating the current pandemic. “
Before Biden took office, incoming White House press secretary Jen Psaki criticized Trump’s effort to lift international travel restrictions, even as more contagious variants emerged around the world.
“We plan to strengthen social health measures around international travel to further mitigate the spread of Covid-19,” Psaki wrote in a tweet.
Trump last Monday, through a proclamation, ordered the lifting of travel restrictions his government implemented early in the pandemic on most non-US citizens who travel from January 26 in much of Europe, the United Kingdom and Brazil was.
This is when the US government will start forcing US travelers, including US citizens, to show recent, negative Covid-19 test results before flying to the US.
White House health adviser Anthony Fauci said available vaccines seemed less effective against new, more contagious strains of Covid-19, but that they were likely to provide enough protection to be worthwhile.
The CDC also announced on Sunday that it would remove the option for airlines with flights from countries that do not have Covid-19 testing to apply for temporary waivers for some travelers. The agency will implement the order Tuesday.
The data has infected more than 25 million people and killed at least 417,000 people in the U.S. since the pandemic, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.
The USA has not yet detected any cases of the South African variant, but several states have detected the British variant.