The Trump administration moved to raise its journey ban on folks arriving from the UK and far of Europe, however a spokesman for Joe Biden stated the president-elect would maintain the restrictions in place to cease the unfold of coronavirus.
The White Home stated on Monday evening it will raise bans on non-US residents arriving from the UK, the Republic of Eire, the 26-nation Schengen widespread visa space and Brazil that have been in force since early final yr.
Nonetheless, the brand new guidelines would go into impact on January 26, six days after Mr Biden’s inauguration, and a spokesman for the president-elect stated he deliberate to maintain the journey bans in place.
“With the pandemic worsening, and extra contagious variants rising all over the world, this isn’t the time to be lifting restrictions on worldwide journey,” Jen Psaki, Mr Biden’s incoming White Home press secretary, wrote on Twitter.
“On the recommendation of our medical workforce, the administration doesn’t intend to raise these restrictions on 1/26,” she added. “Actually, we plan to strengthen public well being measures round worldwide journey to be able to additional mitigate the unfold of Covid-19.”
Underneath the Trump administration order, beginning on January 26, travellers from the affected nations would want proof of a adverse coronavirus take a look at or paperwork exhibiting they’ve contracted and totally recovered from the illness, in step with new guidelines issued final week by the US Facilities for Illness Management and Prevention.
In the meantime, a ban on travellers arriving from China and Iran would stay in place. In a press release issued by the White Home, Mr Trump stated the 2 nations had “repeatedly . . . did not co-operate with the US public well being authorities and to share well timed, correct details about the unfold of the virus”.
Mr Trump’s efforts to raise a ban for UK arrivals comes as many nations are inserting new bans on travellers from the UK, the place rates of coronavirus have surged to file highs and threaten to overwhelm the nation’s well being service.
Final month, Poland and Turkey joined nations together with Germany, France, Italy, Eire, Belgium, Austria, Finland, the Netherlands, Switzerland and India in blocking folks travelling from the UK.
England entered its third national lockdown on January 5, with non-essential retailers shut and the closure of colleges to all however a minority of pupils.
The UK government stated late final week that it will ban folks travelling into the nation.