U.S. extends travel restrictions for Europe, U.K. and Brazil

Dhaka: The new White House administration has further extended travel restrictions for Europe, the U.K., and Brazil.  It also has banned the entry of most of the non-U.S. citizens traveling from South Africa. 

Trump administration first put the bans in place early last year at the onset of the coronavirus pandemic.  But, it moved to lift restrictions for Europe and Brazil before leaving office. Now the present administration reverses the decision in an effort to curb the spread of new strains of the coronavirus.

Jen Psaki, the new White House press secretary on January 25 said, “this isn’t the time to be lifting restrictions on international travel.”   

Joe Biden had “decided to maintain the restrictions previously in place for the European Schengen Area, the United Kingdom, the Republic of Ireland and Brazil, with the pandemic worsening and more contagious variant variants spreading,” she added.

Psaki further added that South Africa would also be added to the restriction list, which bans non-American citizens from entering the US from certain countries. Moreover, from Tuesday, international travelers to the US — including American citizens — would need to provide airlines with proof of a negative Covid test taken with three days of travel.

The Biden administration is now working on ramping up the distribution of coronavirus vaccines and stopping the spread of the virus. Biden’s proposals for an additional $1.9tn in coronavirus relief include billions of dollars to help speed up vaccine distribution, and the new president has set a target of administering 100m jabs in his first 100 days in office.

U.S. tops the list of most affected countries with more than 410,000 deaths from COVID-19 so far.

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