President Biden orders COVID-19 travel restrictions, adds South Africa
Related video above: President Biden signs burst of COVID-19 orders, requires masks for travel
President Joe Biden on Monday reinstated COVID-19 travel restrictions on most non-U.S. travelers from Brazil, Ireland, the United Kingdom and 26 other European countries that allow travel across open borders. He also added South Africa to the list.
White House press secretary Jen Psaki said South Africa was added to the restricted list because of concerns about a variant of the virus that has spread beyond that nation.
맥스카지노This isn맥스카지노t the time to be lifting restrictions on international travel,맥스카지노 Psaki said.
The prohibition Biden is reinstating suspends entry to nearly all foreign nationals who have been in any of the countries on the restricted list at any point during the 14 days before their scheduled travel to the U.S.
The new requirements go into effect on Tuesday.
Top U.S. infectious disease expert Dr. Anthony Fauci called Biden's decision to reinstate the travel restrictions맥스카지노and add South Africa to the list맥스카지노 맥스카지노prudent맥스카지노 in a round of television interviews Monday.
맥스카지노We have concern about the mutation that맥스카지노s in South Africa," Fauci told "CBS This Morning." "We맥스카지노re looking at it very actively. It is clearly a different and more ominous than the one in the U.K., and I think it맥스카지노s very prudent to restrict travel of noncitizens.맥스카지노
Biden revered an order from President Donald Trump in his final days in office that called for the relaxation of the travel restrictions as of 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. obtain a negative test for COVID-19 within three days of boarding their flight.
Last week, Biden expanded on the CDC requirement and directed that federal agencies require international travelers to quarantine upon arrival in the U.S. and obtain another negative test to slow the spread of the virus. Those requirements also go into effect Tuesday.
The 26 European countries impacted by reinstatement of the ban are part of the border-free Schengen zone. They include Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Italy, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland.
Biden's team had announced that he would reimpose the travel restrictions, but the addition of South Africa to the restricted travel list highlights the new administration맥스카지노s concern about mutations in the virus.
The South Africa variant has not been discovered in the United States, but another variant 맥스카지노 originating in the United Kingdom 맥스카지노 has been detected in several states.
Fauci said there is 맥스카지노a very slight, modest diminution맥스카지노 of the effectiveness of COVID-19 vaccines against those variants but 맥스카지노there맥스카지노s enough cushion with the vaccines that we have that we still consider them to be effective against both the UK strain and the South Africa strain.맥스카지노
But he warned that more mutations are possible and said scientists are preparing to adapt the vaccines if necessary.
맥스카지노We really need to make sure that we begin, and we already have, to prepare if it맥스카지노s necessary to upgrade the vaccines,맥스카지노 Fauci said. 맥스카지노We맥스카지노re already taking steps in that direction despite the fact that the vaccines we have now do work.맥스카지노