Washington President Joe Biden will sign executive action to restore COVID-19 travel restrictions for non-US travelers from Brazil, Ireland, the United Kingdom and 26 other European countries that allow travel across open borders, the White House announced Monday.
White House press secretary Jen Psaki also confirmed that South Africa would be added to the restricted list due to concerns about a variant of the virus that has spread outside that country.
“Now is not the time to lift restrictions on international travel,” Psaki said at a news conference.
Dr. Anthony Fauci, the top infectious disease expert in the US, cited Mr. Biden ‘cautiously’ in a series of television interviews on Monday.
“We are concerned about the mutation in South Africa,” Fauci told CBS This Morning. “We are looking at it very actively. It is clearly different and more ominous than the one in the UK, and I think it is very wise to limit travel by non-residents.”
Mr Biden rescinds an order from President Donald Trump in his final days calling for travel restrictions to be relaxed starting Tuesday. Mr. Trump’s move took place in conjunction with a new requirement from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that all international travelers to the US be tested negative for COVID-19 within three days of boarding their flight.
Mr Biden’s team had announced that he would re-impose travel restrictions, but the addition of South Africa to the restricted travel list underscores the new government’s concerns about mutations in the virus.
The South African variety has not been discovered in the United States, but it has been another variant – from the UK – has been found in several states.
Fauci said there is “a very slight, modest decrease” in the effectiveness of COVID-19 vaccines against those variants, but “there is enough cushion with the vaccines we have that we still consider them to be effective against both the UK. tribe like the South. Africa tribe. “
But he warned that more mutations are possible and said scientists are preparing to modify the vaccines if necessary.
“We really need to make sure we get started, and we already have, to prepare if we need to upgrade the vaccines,” Fauci said. “We are already taking steps in that direction despite the fact that the vaccines we have now are working.”