Biden restricts travel to South Africa, UK and Brazil to slow new strains of Covid



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U.S. President Joe Biden signs executive orders for economic aid to families and businesses affected by Covid at the White House State Dining Room in Washington, DC on January 22, 2021.

Nicholas Kamm | AFP | Getty Images

President Joe Biden will sign a travel ban on Monday for most non-U.S. Citizens entering the country who were recently in South Africa, where a new strain of Covid-19 has been identified, a person familiar with CNBC told CNBC the situation.

Biden will also reinstate travel restrictions on entry to non-U.S. Citizens of the UK and Brazil, where new strains of Covid have emerged. The restrictions will also apply to Ireland and much of Europe. President Donald Trump rolled back the restrictions just before Biden took office.

Reuters first announced travel restrictions on Sunday.

Dr Anne Schuchat, senior deputy director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, told the outlet that the agency “is putting in place this suite of measures to protect Americans and also to reduce the risk of these variants spreading and worsening the disease. current pandemic. “

Before Biden took office, new White House press secretary Jen Psaki criticized Trump’s decision to lift restrictions on international travel even as more contagious variants emerged across the world.

“We plan to strengthen public health measures around international travel to further mitigate the spread of Covid-19,” Psaki wrote in a tweet.

Trump, in a proclamation last Monday, ordered the removal of the travel restrictions his administration implemented at the start of the pandemic on most non-U.S. Citizens who were in much of Europe, the UK. Uni and Brazil, from January 26.

This is when the US government will begin requiring air travelers to the United States, including US citizens, to present recent negative Covid-19 test results before boarding flights to United States

White House health adviser Dr Anthony Fauci said available vaccines appeared less effective against newer, more contagious strains of Covid-19, but would likely provide enough protection to be worthwhile. obtained.

The CDC also announced on Sunday that it would remove the ability for airlines with flights from countries without Covid-19 tests to request temporary exemptions for certain travelers. The agency will fulfill the order on Tuesday.

The virus has infected more than 25 million people and killed at least 417,000 people in the United States since the start of the pandemic, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.

The United States has not yet detected a case of the South African variant, but several states have detected the British variant.

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