U.S. President Joe Biden signs executive economic relief orders for families and businesses hit 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 who recently entered the country in South Africa, where a new strain of Covid-19 has been identified, two White House officials told NBC News.
Biden will also reinstate travel restrictions on non-American citizens from the United Kingdom, Ireland and much of Europe, as well as Brazil. These restrictions were rescinded by former President Donald Trump shortly before Biden took office.
Reuters first reported travel restrictions on Sunday.
Dr. Anne Schuchat, chief deputy director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, told the agency that the agency was “putting in place this set of measures to protect Americans and also to reduce the risk of these variants spreading and aggravate the current pandemic. “
Before Biden took office, White House press secretary Jen Psaki criticized Trump’s decision to lift restrictions on international travel, despite the emergence of more contagious variants around the world.
“We plan to strengthen public health measures in relation to international travel to further mitigate the spread of Covid-19,” wrote Psaki in a tweet.
White House health advisor Dr. Anthony Fauci said the available vaccines appear to be less effective against new and more contagious strains of Covid-19, but that they will probably still provide enough protection to be worthwhile.
The CDC also announced on Sunday that it would remove the option for airlines flying from countries that do not have the Covid-19 test to request temporary exemptions for some travelers. The agency will implement the order on Tuesday.
The virus has infected more than 25 million people and has killed at least 417,000 people in the United States since the pandemic began, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.
The United States has yet to detect a case of the South African variant, but several states have detected the United Kingdom variant.