WASHINGTON (AP) – President Joe Biden reinstated COVID-19 travel restrictions on Monday for most non-American 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 shortlist because of concerns over a variant of the virus that has spread beyond that country.
“This is not the time to lift restrictions on international travel,” said Psaki.
The ban that Biden is reinstating suspends the entry of almost all foreigners who were in any of the countries on the shortlist at any time during the 14 days prior to their scheduled trip to the USA
The new requirements take effect on Tuesday.
Leading infectious disease specialist in the United States, Dr. Anthony Fauci, called Biden’s decision to reinstate travel restrictions – and add South Africa to the list – “prudent” in a round of television interviews on Monday .
“We are concerned about the mutation that is in South Africa,” Fauci told CBS This Morning. “We are looking at this very actively. It is clearly different and more sinister than that of the United Kingdom, and I think it is very prudent to restrict travel by non-citizens ”.
Biden revered an order from President Donald Trump in his final days in office that called for relaxation of travel restrictions from 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 departure.
Last week, Biden expanded the CDC requirement and determined that federal agencies require international travelers to be quarantined upon arrival in the U.S. and obtain another negative test to slow the spread of the virus. These requirements also take effect on Tuesday.
The 26 European countries affected by the restoration of the ban are part of the borderless 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 announced that he would re-enforce travel restrictions, but the inclusion of South Africa in the restricted travel list highlights the new government’s concern about mutations in the virus.
The South Africa variant was not discovered in the United States, but another variant – originally from the United Kingdom – has been detected in several states.
Fauci said that there is “a very slight and modest decrease” in the effectiveness of the COVID-19 vaccines against these variants, but “there is sufficient cushioning with the vaccines that we have that we still consider them effective against the strain of the United Kingdom and the South African strain. . ”
But he warned that more mutations are possible and said that scientists are preparing to adapt vaccines if necessary.
“We really need to be sure that we are going to start, and have already done so, to prepare, if necessary, to update vaccines,” said Fauci. “We are already taking steps in that direction, despite the fact that the vaccines we have now work.”