President Donald Trump said on Monday he would end the travel restrictions on Covid-19 for air travelers from Europe and Brazil, a move that the incoming government quickly rejected.
Trump said in a proclamation that the restrictions would be lifted on January 26, the same day an order for Centers for Disease Control and Prevention takes effect that requires a negative test for air travelers arriving in the US.
But by then, Joe Biden would be president, and his incoming press secretary tweeted that the restrictions remain in effect.
“With the worsening pandemic and more contagious variants emerging around the world, this is not the time to lift restrictions on international travel,” Biden’s press secretary, Jen Psaki, tweeted on Monday. “… We plan to strengthen the social health measures surrounding international travel to further mitigate the spread of COVID-19.”
The travel restrictions imposed last year prevented most people without US citizenship or residency from traveling to the US from the regions concerned.
Trump’s proclamation said the restrictions would be lifted for Europe and Brazil because the US is confident they will comply with an order requiring a negative Covid-19 test for those traveling to the US by plane.
This applies restrictions to China and Iran.
The CDC announced earlier this month that all air passengers from other countries must test negative for Covid-19 from January 26 before arriving in the US.
If the restrictions are lifted as in Trump’s proclamation, travelers from the United Kingdom, the Schengen area in Europe and Ireland and Brazil will still have to test negative for Covid-19.
But the current restrictions that prevent all non-US citizens who have been in those countries for the past 14 days would be lifted, according to a White House official.
Trump said he was leaving the restrictions for China and Iran in part because “their lack of cooperation with the United States so far in fighting the pandemic calls into question their cooperation” with the test order.
The CDC said in late December that all UK air travelers would be required to test negative for Covid-19 before leaving for the US after discovering a variant that was believed to be more transmissible in the country.
The public health agency on Jan. 12 said the requirement would be expanded to include air passengers entering the U.S. with effect from Jan. 26.
The variant discovered in the UK was detected in at least ten states in the US on Wednesday, according to a CDC report last week. It is considered more communicable, but no longer lethal.
More than 2 million people around the world have died from Covid-19, according to Johns Hopkins University, which is monitoring cases. The 2 million mark was passed on Friday.
According to NBC News, there were more than 399,800 deaths and more than 24 million cases in the pandemic.
The Associated Press contributed.