Joe Biden On A Roll: Reinstates Travel Restrictions; No Exceptions In Quarantine For Countries Like South Africa And UK

Joe Biden has reinstated travel restrictions as the Covid-19 cases in the country is at an all time high.

New Delhi: President Joe Biden is bringing back travel restrictions which were revoked by former President Donald Trump. The virus has killed more than 418,000 people and infected upward of 25 million across the U.S. According to NBC news, the ban would prevent most non-U.S. citizens from entry if they have recently been in South Africa, where a new strain of Covid-19 has been identified.

Last week, President Biden tightened mask wearing rules and made quarantine mandatory for people travelling to U.S. Biden is also expected to reinstate broader restrictions that were in effect much of the past year but were rescinded by President Donald Trump days before his term ended. According to a Reuters report, the limits would affect non-U.S. citizens traveling from the United Kingdom, Ireland and much of Europe that come under Schengen visa as well as people coming from Brazil.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Sunday that, beginning Tuesday, it will no longer consider exceptions to its requirement that international travelers present negative coronavirus tests. In statement a CDC spokeperson said, "As variants of the SARS-CoV-2 virus continue to emerge in countries around the world, there is growing evidence of increased transmissibility of some of these variants, as well as unknown health and vaccine implications." They added "Testing before and after travel is a critical layer to slow the introduction and spread of COVID-19 and emerging variants."

Recently, during the first briefing since President Biden started his terms, Dr. Anthony Fauci who remains the top advisor for Covid-19 said it was liberating to focus on science ever since former President Trump left.

He told reporters, according to an NDTV report, "..one of the things that was very clear as recently as about 15 minutes ago, when I was with the president, is that one of the things that we're going to do is to be completely transparent, open and honest. If things go wrong, not point fingers but to correct them and to make everything we do be based on science and evidence."