President Biden will reimpose a ban on many non-U.S. citizens attempting to enter the country. The move is an attempt to limit the spread of COVID-19 and contain new variants of the disease that have cropped up in several countries around the globe, according to media reports Sunday.
The ban, expected to start Monday, would prohibit travelers from the United Kingdom, Ireland, and 26 countries in Europe that allow travel across open borders, called the Schengen Area, according to Reuters. It will also block entry to travelers from Brazil and South Africa, where researchers discovered new variants of the virus.
Former President Donald Trump imposed similar restrictions on travelers from Brazil and Europe, but ordered those bans be lifted two days before his term ended.
Biden’s order rescinds that decision, marking the new administration’s more stringent approach to coronavirus policies moving forward. It also follows early signs that Biden planned to turn back Trump’s attempts to open U.S. borders to foreign travelers amidst the still-raging pandemic.
White House press secretary Jen Psaki criticized Trump’s announcement to lift travel restrictions writing in a tweet last week, “With the pandemic worsening, and more contagious variants emerging around the world, this is not the time to be lifting restrictions on international travel. We plan to strengthen public health measures around international travel in order to further mitigate the spread of COVID-19.”
New threats
Just over a year after the first U.S.-based coronavirus case was detected, the nation surpassed a harrowing pandemic milestone on Sunday: 25 million confirmed cases, according to data from Johns Hopkins University’s Coronavirus Resource Center.
