Riders arrive on a flight from London amid new restrictions to prevent the spread of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) at JFK Ecumenical Airport in New York, December 21, 2020.
Eduardo Munoz | Reuters
President Joe Biden on Monday banned most non-U.S. freemen traveling from South Africa from entering the U.S. and extended travel restrictions for Europe, the U.K. and Brazil, in an effort to contain the spread of Covid-19, particularly as new strains of the coronavirus are identified.
The measures, reported Sunday by CNBC, come as diverse contagious variants of the virus have spread.
Former President Donald Trump last week rescinded the memo bans on most non-U.S. citizens who had been in the U.K., Brazil or many countries in Europe, but then-President-elect Biden’s spokeswoman revealed the new administration would quickly reverse that step.
Trump’s decision to lift the rules was supposed to take virtually Tuesday, when the U.S. will start requiring U.S.-bound travelers to show a recent, negative Covid test upshot before flying to the United States.
U.S. airlines had urged the Trump administration to replace travel bans with Covid check-up requirements.