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Washington – President Joe Biden to sign executive action reinstating COVID-19 travel restrictions for non-US travelers from Brazil, Ireland, the UK and 26 other European countries that allow crossing open borders, a announced Monday the White House.
White House press secretary Jen Psaki also confirmed that South Africa will be added to the shortlist due to concerns over a variant of the virus that has spread beyond that country.
“Now is not the time to lift restrictions on international travel,” Psaki said at a press briefing.
US infectious disease specialist Dr Anthony Fauci called Mr Biden’s decision “cautious” 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 worrying than that of the UK, and I think it is very prudent to restrict non-citizen travel.”
Mr Biden is rescinding an order by President Donald Trump in his last days in office that called for the relaxation of travel restrictions from Tuesday. Mr Trump’s decision was made in conjunction with a new requirement from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that all international travelers to the United States test negative for COVID-19 within three days of the move. boarding their flight.
Mr Biden’s team had said he would reimpose travel restrictions, but the addition of South Africa to the travel restricted list highlights the new administration’s concern over mutations in the virus.
The South African variant was not discovered in the United States, but another variant – originating in the United Kingdom – has been detected in several states.
Fauci said there was “a very slight and modest decrease” in the effectiveness of the COVID-19 vaccines against these variants, but “there is enough cushion with the vaccines that we have that we still consider them effective. against the British strain and the South. Africa strain. “
But he warned other mutations were possible and said scientists were preparing to adapt vaccines if necessary.
“We really need to make sure that we start, and we have already, to prepare ourselves if there is a need to upgrade the vaccines,” Fauci said. “We are already taking steps in this direction despite the fact that the vaccines we have now are working.
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