US President Joe Biden speaks concerning the Covid-19 vaccine photographs administered within the US within the Eisenhower Executive Office Building in Washington, DC, February 25, 2021.
Saul Loeb | AFP | Getty Images
The Biden administration is tightening travel guidelines to and throughout the U.S., requiring all in-bound worldwide passengers to take a look at for Covid inside 24 hours of departure and increasing its mask requirement on all home flights and public transportation via March 18.
The modifications have been introduced Thursday as part of a broader plan to bolster the nation’s arsenal of instruments in its fight in opposition to the virus as the world enters its third yr of the pandemic.
The plan can also be the newest transfer by the Biden administration to stem the unfold of the brand new, extremely mutated omicron variant of the coronavirus, which was first reported to the WHO by South Africa per week in the past. At least 23 countries have identified omicron cases so far, and that quantity is predicted to rise within the coming days and weeks, the WHO stated Wednesday.
The U.S. joined that record after confirming its first case of the variant in Northern California on Wednesday.
The tightened pre-departure testing protocols will apply to all in-bound worldwide vacationers regardless of vaccination standing and can start as early as subsequent week, senior administration officers informed reporters throughout a press name late Wednesday. Previously, the U.S. required proof of a unfavorable Covid take a look at taken inside 72 hours of departure, although this was tightened to solely vaccinated vacationers final month. Unvaccinated vacationers had to have a unfavorable Covid take a look at inside in the future of departure.
“Our doctors believe tightening testing requirements for pre-departure will help catch more cases, potential cases of people who may be positive and inside the country,” a senior administration official stated. “And so now is the right time to do it. And we can implement it very quickly.”
The mask mandate, which was initially supposed to expire in January, requires masking whereas on buses, trains, planes and transportation hubs such as indoor bus terminals and airports. Fines will stay doubled from their initial levels for noncompliance with the requirement, beginning at $500, and going up to $3,000 for repeat offenders.
Vaccine mandates
The Biden administration’s new plan additionally urges companies to “move forward expeditiously” with requiring employees to get vaccinated or examined weekly. Such protocols are “especially important” given the brand new omicron variant, the plan added.
“We’re asking businesses to step forward and do what’s right to protect our workers, our communities — to put in place some sort of vaccination requirement or testing requirements for the workplace,” a senior administration official stated through the name.
The administration had given companies with 100 or extra workers till Jan. 4 to guarantee their employees are both vaccinated in opposition to Covid-19, or submit a unfavorable take a look at weekly earlier than getting into the office. Unvaccinated workers have been additionally supposed to begin sporting masks indoors on the office on Dec. 5.
However, the Occupational Safety and Health administration suspended enforcement and implementation of the requirements earlier this month, after the U.S. Court of Appeal for the fifth Circuit halted the coverage pending evaluate.
More than two dozen lawsuits have been filed to overturn the Biden coverage. But labor unions are asking the courts to increase the necessities to cowl smaller companies and shield extra employees.
Home Covid assessments
The Biden administration’s winter Covid plan additionally contains extra free at-home assessments.
More than 150 million Americans with non-public insurance coverage will likely be ready to get reimbursed for his or her at-home assessments, in accordance to the plan. Those with out non-public insurance coverage will likely be ready to entry at-home assessments via group websites such as well being facilities and rural clinics.
The plan additionally goals to bolster outreach efforts to get extra individuals vaccinated, make sure the equitable distribution of Covid -19 remedies to weak populations and launch greater than 60 speedy response groups to states to assist fight the virus.
“While this new variant is a cause for concern, it is not a cause for panic,” a senior administration official stated. “We have the tools we need to confront this variant and keep making progress in our fight against the virus.”
Last week, President Joe Biden ordered precautionary air travel restrictions for South Africa, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Namibia, Lesotho, Eswatini, Mozambique and Malawi. He didn’t point out how lengthy the bans, which took impact Monday, will stay in place.
Those restrictions got here into impact three weeks after the U.S. lifted a blanket ban on visitors from greater than 30 nations, together with the U.Ok., India, Brazil and South Africa, changing them with vaccination necessities for vacationers. Other nations applied new travel restrictions final week, sending airline and different travel shares tumbling.
The president on Monday additionally stated his administration is working with vaccine producers Pfizer, Moderna and Johnson & Johnson to develop contingency plans for added vaccines or boosters tailor-made to shield in opposition to the brand new variant.
He is directing the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and the CDC to use the “fastest process available without cutting any corners” to approve such potential vaccines.
Current Covid-19 vaccines in the marketplace are believed to present some safety in opposition to omicron, Biden stated Monday, including that booster photographs “strengthen that protection significantly.”
On Wednesday, White House chief medical advisor Dr. Anthony Fauci famous the profile of the variant suggests its mutations might cut back the effectiveness of present vaccines. However, extra knowledge remains to be wanted, he added.
Omicron has greater than 30 mutations to the spike protein alone. Some of the mutations are related to increased transmission and a lower in antibody safety, in accordance to the WHO.
— CNBC’s Spencer Kimball and Leslie Josephs contributed to this report.
