After speaking with a White House official, David Shepardson of Reuters reports that “[t]he United States will not lift any existing travel restrictions ‘at this point’ due to concerns over the highly transmissible COVID-19 Delta variant and the rising number of U.S. coronavirus cases.” According to Mr. Shepardson’s source in the White House, the decision came after a senior level White House meeting on Friday, the 23rd of July.

Currently, the US has COVID-19 travel restrictions in place barring entry for most non-US nationals who within the last fourteen days have visited Brazil, China, Iran, Ireland, countries in the European Schengen Area, South Africa, India, and the United Kingdom. These restrictions will continue to be in effect.

With the onset of vaccination campaigns worldwide, increased summer travel, and Europe lifting several of its travel bans on June 18, 2021, including the one on US residents, questions about when the US would open its borders have become more pressing. The travel and tourism industries in the US have been lobbying for President Biden to lift the restrictions for months.

While on an official visit, German Chancellor Angela Merkel raised the issue to President Biden, prompting the administration to announce that it is reviewing when the US can lift restrictions that ban most non-U.S. citizens from traveling to the United States from the European Schengen Area.

It appears that as long as COVID-19 variants continue to spread around the globe, travel restrictions will stay in place to ensure the safety of US residents.