Washington – President Joe Biden will sign an executive action restoring COVID-19 travel restrictions to non-American travelers from Brazil, Ireland, the United Kingdom and 26 other European countries that allow travel across open borders, the White House announced on Monday. .
White House press secretary Jen Psaki also confirmed that South Africa would be 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 at a news conference.
Leading infectious disease specialist in the United States, Dr. Anthony Fauci, called Biden’s decision “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 the UK, and I think it is very prudent to restrict travel by non-citizens.”
Biden is revoking an order from President Donald Trump in his final days in office that called for relaxation of travel restrictions starting Tuesday. Mr. 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.
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 – originating in the United Kingdom – was 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 United Kingdom and 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 make sure that we start, and have already done so, to prepare ourselves if we need to update the vaccines,” said Fauci. “We are already taking steps in that direction, despite the fact that the vaccines we have now work.”