- President-elect Biden has promised to reverse efforts by President Donald Trump in the last days of his presidency to lift coronavirus-related
travel restrictions on passengers from Europe and Brazil. - "This is not the time to be lifting restrictions on international travel," a Biden representative said.
- The president-elect last week announced an ambitious $400 billion plan to fight the
coronavirus .
President-elect Joe Biden has pledged to reverse efforts by President Donald Trump in the final days of his presidency to lift COVID-19 travel restrictions on passengers arriving from Europe and Brazil.
Trump on Monday signed an executive order lifting the restrictions imposed last year in response to the coronavirus pandemic.
Under Trump's plan, which takes effect January 26, the restrictions would be lifted on non-US nationals arriving from the UK, Ireland, most of the European Union, and Brazil. Restrictions on travel from China and Iran would remain.
Shortly afterward a representative for Biden, who is set to take office Wednesday, said the new president would reverse the order and extend the existing travel restrictions.
"With the pandemic worsening, and more contagious variants emerging around the world, this is not the time to be lifting restrictions on international travel," the representative, Jen Psaki, wrote on Twitter.
"On the advice of our medical team, the Administration does not intend to lift these restrictions on 1/26," she added. "In fact, we plan to strengthen public health measures around international travel in order to further mitigate the spread of COVID-19."
Biden last week announced an ambitious $400 billion plan to fight the coronavirus. It included a $20 billion vaccination program, funding for a scaled-up testing regimen, and policies that focus on helping underserved communities.
The president-elect has railed against Trump's attempts to downplay the severity of the pandemic.
More recently he criticized the president for the pace of the COVID-19 vaccine rollout, which has fallen behind the Trump administration's stated goals.
Biden's chief of staff, Ron Klein, said the incoming president also planned during his first day in the White House to sign "roughly a dozen" executive orders meant to reverse some of Trump's signature policies.
That includes lifting separate travel restrictions on several majority-Muslim countries and rejoining the Paris climate accord.