CNN President Donald Trump on Monday lifted coronavirus-related travel restrictions for much of Europe, the UK, Ireland and Brazil, which take effect on January 26 – a move that marks the election of President Joe Biden’s government promised to block.
In an executive order issued Monday night, Trump said he was advised to lift restrictions on incoming travelers to the United States from the 26 European countries in the Schengen zone, the United Kingdom, Ireland and Brazil, but restrictions traveling from Iran and China.
“I agree with the Secretary that this action is the best way to protect Americans from COVID-19 while resuming the journey safely,” Trump wrote in the order, referring to Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar .
Biden will take over the presidency on Wednesday and his incoming press secretary, Jen Psaki, has said his government will not lift the restrictions.
“With the worsening pandemic and more contagious variants emerging around the world, this is not the time to lift restrictions on international travel,” Psaki said on Twitter. “On the advice of our medical team, the Administration does not intend to lift these restrictions on 26/26. We plan to strengthen the social health measures surrounding international travel to further mitigate the spread of COVID-19.”
Reuters first reported the order.
The expected easing of travel restrictions comes after the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said last week that it would require a negative Covid-19 test from all air passengers entering the United States – a move he said could help the slowing down the spread of the coronavirus. . Air passengers will have to take a test and provide written documentation of their laboratory results or documentation of their recovery from Covid-19 within three days of their flight to the United States, the agency said in a statement to CNN.
CNN released the White House Coronavirus Task Force on whether the panel approved the expected move.
The combination of the test program announced last week, and the lifting of travel restrictions are in line with the interests of several airlines that have negotiated with the CDC and the White House. Earlier this month, a group of major airlines asked the Trump administration to broadly expand a program to test U.S. travelers and lift travel restrictions at the same time.
Airlines for America – with members including American Airlines, United Airlines and Delta Air Lines – wrote to Vice President Mike Pence asking the government to “implement a global program to test travelers to the United States.” The group writes that such a program enables the authorities to release restrictions on access to the US from the European Union, the United Kingdom and Brazil.
Last month, the CDC announced that passengers arriving from the United Kingdom in the United States should test negative for Covid-19 before departure in response to a new coronavirus variant allegedly originating in the United Kingdom and possibly is more transferable. At least 72 cases of a variant first identified in the UK have been found in ten US states, according to data posted by the CDC last week.
Many of the countries affected by Trump’s order have their own recent requirements for American travelers who want to enter their borders. U.S. travelers must pass a negative Covid-19 test within the preceding 72 hours to travel to the United Kingdom or Ireland, along with proof of a full traveler’s health declaration to enter Brazil. US travelers can not enter countries in the Schengen area, including Spain (except special permission or requirements), Germany, France, Italy and Sweden.
The possible reversal of travel restrictions would come if the Trump administration moved to another element of the coronavirus response in the last days of the president.
The Department of Health and Human Services is expected to announce comprehensive changes to vaccine guidelines last week in an effort to boost the remaining number of vaccinations in the first month, and the approach taken by Biden’s incoming government proposed, to be accepted effectively.
Since then, hopes of a surge in Covid-19 vaccines seem to be under a new policy of releasing second doses held in reserve – with the revelation that the doses have already been distributed, contrary to recent indications by Trump -government.
A senior administration official told CNN that when the government announced they would release reserved doses last Friday, many of the reserves were already released into the system last year as production was increasing.
This story has been updated with further developments.