By David Shepardson
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President-elect of the United States, Joe Biden, plans to quickly extend travel restrictions, preventing travel from most people who have recently been to much of Europe and Brazil, shortly after President Donald Trump lifted those demands as of January 26, a spokeswoman for Biden said.
Trump signed an order on Monday removing the restrictions he imposed early last year in response to the pandemic – a decision first reported on Monday by Reuters – after gaining the support of coronavirus task force members and public health authorities.
Shortly after Trump’s order was made public, Biden’s spokeswoman Jen Psaki tweeted “following the advice of our medical team, the government does not intend to lift these restrictions on 1/26”.
She added that “with the worsening pandemic and more contagious variants emerging around the world, this is not the time to lift restrictions on international travel.”
Until Biden takes action, Trump’s order ends the restrictions on the same day that the new COVID-19 test requirements take effect for all international visitors. Trump is expected to step down on Wednesday.
Last week, the head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention signed an order requiring almost all airplane passengers to submit a negative coronavirus test or proof of COVID-19 recovery to enter the United States starting January 26. .
The restrictions rescinded by Trump have barred almost all non-American citizens who in the past 14 days have been in Brazil, the United Kingdom, Ireland and the 26 Schengen countries in Europe that allow them to travel across open borders.
U.S. restrictions banning most visitors to Europe have been in place since mid-March, when Trump signed proclamations that impose them, while Brazil’s entry ban was imposed in May.
Psaki added that “in fact, we plan to strengthen public health measures in relation to international travel to further mitigate the spread of COVID-19.” The Biden transition did not immediately respond to a request to comment whether it planned to expand the countries covered.
Biden, once in office, has the legal authority to impose restrictions again.
Last Tuesday, Marty Cetron, director of the CDC’s global migration and quarantine division, told Reuters that entry bans were an “open action strategy” to deal with the spread of the virus and should now be “reconsidered. actively”.
Airlines hoped that the new test requirements would pave the way for the government to lift restrictions that reduced travel in some European countries by 95% or more.
They have pressured senior White House officials on the issue in recent days.
For months, many government officials argued that the restrictions no longer made sense, as most countries were not subject to entry bans. Others argued that the United States should not lift entry bans, as many European countries still block most American citizens.
Reuters previously reported that the White House was not considering lifting entry bans for most non-American citizens who were recently in China or Iran. Trump confirmed on Monday that he would not lift them.
(Reporting by David Shepardson; Editing by Howard Goller and Nick Zieminski)