(Reuters / ANSA), January 25 – The White House has confirmed that US President Joe Biden will again impose a ban on entering the United States on most non-US citizens from the UK, Brazil, Ireland and most of Europe today. And he will also extend this ban to those arriving from South Africa, after the reports of the new variants in the US.
This decision is part of the plan of the new US democratic administration to fight the epidemic that is spreading in the country most affected by Covid-19.
Total COVID-19 cases in the United States crossed 25 million on Sunday, a Reuters tally showed, with one of President Joe Biden’s top economic aides saying they will press Democratic and Republican senators for a fresh $1.9 trillion in relief.
Lawmakers from both parties said they had agreed that getting the COVID-19 vaccine to Americans should be a priority, but some Republicans objected to such a hefty package only a month after Congress passed a $900 billion relief measure.
“It seems premature to be considering a package of this size and scope,” said Republican Senator Susan Collins, who was on the call with Brian Deese, director of the White House’s National Economic Council, and other top Biden aides.
Collins said she agreed additional funding was needed for vaccine distribution, but in a “more limited” bill, and planned to discuss such a measure with other lawmakers.
Senator Dick Durbin, the Senate’s No. 2 Democrat, said the call had shown that coronavirus relief was Biden’s top priority.
“We can’t wait,” White House Principal Deputy Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters. “Just because Washington has been gridlocked before doesn’t mean it needs to continue to be gridlocked.”
The White House did not provide a readout of the call, but Jared Bernstein, a member of Biden’s Council of Economic Advisers, told CNN afterward that the $900 billion in relief passed in late 2020 would only help for “a month or two.”
