The United States government will require from “the beginning of next week” all foreign travelers who want to enter the country to present a negative test for Covid-19, carried out the day before departure, and to be vaccinated, the White House reported Thursday.
The president, Joe Biden, reported on a series of measures to boost vaccination and deal with the spread of Covid-19 during the winter after the first case of the new variant of coronavirus Ómicron was known in the country on Wednesday.
Meanwhile, for internal displacement, President Biden will announce an extension of the mandatory use of face masks on planes, trains, and other means of public transportation until mid-March, a senior official said.
The new measures seek to reassure Americans and show that Biden is doing everything in his power to prevent the pandemic from derailing America’s impressive economic recovery and the Christmas holidays.
The president and his advisers have reiterated that there will be no return to mass closures in recent days.
But the government faces the fact that many Americans are not receptive to Biden’s calls for collective action to defeat the pandemic. About 40% of the population is still not fully immunized, despite creative attempts to encourage vaccination.
And nearly 100 million people eligible for booster shots have yet to seize the chance.