US shuts down on new variants of coronavirus, bans entry from Europe, Brazil and South Africa

The spokesperson for then-president-elect Joe Biden had already warned when Donald Trump, days after leaving the White House, signed an order lifting restrictions travel for passengers from the Schengen area, the United Kingdom and Ireland from January 26: now is not the time to lift the restrictions but to enlarge them.

This is what Joe Biden is preparing to do this Monday, from the Oval Office, reactivate the restrictions before they expire and expand the list of countries subject to them to include, in addition to Europeans, Brazil, Iran and China, also in South Africa due to the emergence of a new variant of the coronavirus.

A new proclamation by President Biden on Monday will overturn Trump’s January 18 suspension of restrictions adopted in March 2020 for slow down the arrival of travelers which have been in the last 14 days in the countries of the Schengen zone, including Spain, several American media have come forward on Sunday.

The legislation only allows free entry in the United States to their own nationals and immediate family members, green card holders with permanent residence or diplomatic visas, military or government.

The situation therefore does not change for the majority of potential international travelers from Europe. The restrictions remain in effect and in fact they harden entry conditions for all international passengers.

From Tuesday it will be necessary to present a negative PCR test carried out within 72 hours of arrival in the United States, a condition similar to that applied by more than a hundred countries around the world, including Spain since December. Additionally, travelers will be recommended to self-quarantine for a week upon arrival and retest after five or seven days.

From Tuesday, travel restrictions will also apply to South Africa. The purpose of these measures is to “protect American citizens and reduce the new variants and worsen the current pandemic, ”Dr Anne Schuchat, new director of the Center for Disease Control (CDC), told Reuters.

The United States has recorded more than 25 million confirmed cases of covid and 418,000 deaths, at a rate of about 4,000 per day in recent weeks.

President Biden warned the country last week that while the contagion curve appears to have slowed, sadly, The worst is yet to come in terms of death toll and called for an effort by citizens to massively use the mask for 100 days to slow down infections and speed up the vaccination campaign.

The author is a reporter for La Vanguardia, Washington

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