Five Republican members of the US Senate, led by Marco Rubio, on Friday called on President Joe Biden’s administration to ban travel between the US and China after a sharp increase in cases of respiratory disease in China.
“We should immediately restrict travel between the United States and (China) until we know more about the dangers of this new disease,” reads the petition signed by Rubio, the top Republican on the Senate Intelligence Committee, and Senator J.D. Vance , Rick Scott, Tommy Tuberville and Mike Braun.
Rising cases of the new disease in China attracted global attention last week when the World Health Organization (WHO) asked Beijing for more information, citing an Emerging Disease Surveillance Program report on undiagnosed pneumonia in children in China.
A Biden administration official told Reuters the United States was closely monitoring the rise of respiratory illnesses in China, but added: “We are seeing seasonal trends. At this time, there appears to be nothing [erakorralist]… There is no indication of a link between people seeking care in U.S. emergency departments and the respiratory disease outbreak in China.”
Liu Pengyu, a spokesperson for the Chinese embassy in Washington, said in response to Rubio’s letter: “The allegations in question are purely malicious fabrications. China firmly opposes them.”
Maria Van Kerkhove, acting director of the WHO’s Division of Epidemic and Pandemic Preparedness and Prevention, said earlier this week that the increase appears to be due to an increase in the number of children contracting the pathogen and who managed to avoid infection during the period in which they contracted the pathogen. two-year period of COVID-19 restrictions.
The number of flights between the United States and China has increased steadily in recent months, but is still well below 2019 levels. By November the number had increased from 12 weekly flights in August to 35 weekly flights.
In January 2020, then-President Donald Trump banned most non-US citizens who had recently visited China from entering the United States due to COVID, but did not restrict flights between the two countries.
The United States has lifted unprecedented travel restrictions on fully vaccinated international visitors, including those from China, starting in November 2021. The United States has lifted a separate requirement that airline passengers test negative before arriving in June 2022. The United States began requiring airline passengers to provide negative COVID tests in January following Beijing’s decision to scrap strict zero-Covid policies, but dropped the requirements in March.
2023-12-02 09:37:00
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