When will this end?
President Biden and his administration is now planning to extend their mask mandate for people who travel on domestic flights, trains, and public transportation. Biden will also require testing for international travelers to prevent further spread of the omicron variant in the United States.
According to the Washington Examiner, President Biden is extending the mask mandates on planes, trains , and buses through March 2022. This is a two month extension of the mandate which was expected to end on January 18th. Additionally, people to fly into the United States from outside of the country will have to submit a negative COVID-19 test that was taken 24 hours before their flight.
Biden recently stopped travel from eight African nations to prevent the new variant from entering the United States. However, Biden did not ban travel from certain parts of Europe where it is known that the variant has already spread to.
Sadly, Biden’s efforts to stop Omicron from reaching the United States appears to have already failed. The Omicron virus was recently detected in San Francisco after one traveler returned from South Africa. The World Health Organization has claimed that the variant is highly mutated and spreads more easily however symptoms of the variant appear to be mild.
Currently, travelers from South Africa, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Namibia, Lesotho, Eswatini, Mozambique, and Malawi are not allowed to enter the United States do to President Biden’s travel ban and it is unclear if Biden is expected to ban travelers from more countries. It is unclear if the Omicron variant will further disrupt the United States economy. However, President Biden’s approval rating cannot sink any further.
