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(ANSA) — The United States will not rescind any travel restrictions in effect “at this time” due to concerns about the increased number of Covid-19 cases and the contagious delta variant.
The announcement was made on Monday (26th) by a White House official, citing the agency Bloomberg, after a high-level meeting.
The Joe Biden administration is under pressure from foreign governments, airlines and some members of Congress to loosen restrictions on foreign nationals entering the country. However, the Democratic administration has repeatedly stated that the relaxation of measures will be decided only on the basis of epidemiological data.
At a news conference, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki confirmed that the Joe Biden administration’s intent is to maintain the current restrictions, without expanding for the time being.
In addition, she noted, the delta variant is spreading across the country and the rest of the world and, in the case of the United States, has sparked a new wave essentially against non-vaccinated people.
According to US experts, the rise in reported cases of Covid-19 in the country is occurring at a much faster pace than previous waves of the epidemic.
“At the beginning of the epidemic, we explained to people the risk of infection if you were in a closed environment, without masks, near a person carrying the virus for 15 minutes or more. Today, the equivalent of this risk with the delta variable is one second,” explained infectious disease specialist Grossman. Celine Gunder.
“For this reason, we need to do more to protect ourselves, including going back to wearing masks if you’re indoors with people outside your circle,” Gunder concluded.
The US currently bans entry to nearly all non-US citizens who have visited the UK, Ireland, China, India, South Africa, Iran, Brazil and the 26 European countries that make up the Schengen Area in the past few years.
Travel restrictions were first imposed by the democratic government against China in January 2020 to try to combat the spread of Covid-19.
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