by Donald Wood
Last updated: 4:17 PM ET, Thu May 20, 2021
United States President Joe Biden and his administration are reportedly considering sweeping changes to international travel restrictions put in place to combat the spread of COVID-19.
According to Reuters.com, the White House has held a series of meetings over the last month about when and how they could begin to rescind the travel restrictions barring most non-essential travelers from entering the country.
Biden and his team are working with industry officials to develop a plan to possibly allow vaccinated Europeans to enter the U.S., but they have "reached no decisions." A White House spokesman told Reuters there were no changes in travel restrictions planned at the moment.
U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said Wednesday that lifting travel restrictions is a "public health decision and there is an interagency process and obviously the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is taking a leading role."
"There are two ways of looking at this - one is to look at countries, the other is to look at travelers," Buttigieg continued.
On Wednesday, European Union ambassadors approved the ruling that tourists from outside the bloc who have been fully vaccinated would be allowed in and restrictions on which countries are considered safe would be eased.
EU Commission spokesman Christian Wigand told The AP the European Council "will now recommend that member states ease some of the current restrictions" for those who have been vaccinated.
Earlier this month, a group of aviation industry companies and organizations called on government officials to reopen the U.S. and Europe air travel market "as soon as safely possible."
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