WASHINGTON, Nov 8 (Reuters) – President Joe Biden and top officials in his Cabinet are hitting the road to promote the $1 trillion infrastructure bill passed in Congress last week, as they explain when and where Americans can expect to see some of the funds in their own communities.
White House aides are planning a bipartisan signing ceremony for the infrastructure bill as soon as this week, after it gained final passage on Friday night when Democrats who control the House of Representatives ended months of bickering and approved it. read more
Biden is also pressing lawmakers to approve a separate, climate and safety-net package known as his Build Back Better plan. It is estimated to cost about $1.75 trillion and has been the subject of fierce debate on Capitol Hill.
“It’s going to be a tough fight. It ain’t over yet, as the expression goes, but I feel good, and I think people are beginning to realize it’s important to get it done,” Biden told reporters on Monday.
Biden heads to the Port of Baltimore on Wednesday to promote the infrastructure bill and will travel to places where the “need is and the action is,” Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg told the White House daily news briefing on Monday.
Buttigieg and Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm, Interior Secretary Deb Haaland, Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Michael Regan and Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo are fanning out across the country as well.
“In the coming weeks, those members and other senior officials will travel to red states, blue states, big cities, small towns, rural areas, tribal communities and more to translate what this deal means for real people across the country,” a White House source said.
The American Flag flies at the U.S. Capitol Building, as Mayor Muriel Bowser declared a State of Emergency due to the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), on Capitol Hill in Washington, U.S., March 18, 2020. REUTERS/Tom Brenner/File Photo
A Democratic National Committee source told Reuters the party would unveil a slogan based on the bill: “Democrats delivered.”
The bill sends tens of billions of dollars to federal agencies and states for bridge and highway repair, new broadband and public transportation projects and will fund a network of electric-vehicle charging stations across the country.
“A lot of this sells itself,” Buttigieg said, “because communities never needed to be persuaded that their bridge needed to be fixed or their airports needed an upgrade. … They’ve been trying to get Washington to catch up to them.”
It gives Biden and Democrats a much-needed jolt of good news after poll numbers have fallen for the president. Republicans made gains in local elections last week, winning the governor’s office in Virginia and coming closer than expected in heavily Democratic New Jersey.
The White House victory lap will include messages on African-American and Spanish-language media and partnering with labor unions, business groups and state and local leaders.
The DNC source said that while the infrastructure bill is an important milestone, Democrats need to pass Biden’s social safety and climate spending plan next.
“Voters have a short memory. They have already forgotten the CARES Act (COVID-19 relief program). They will forget a bridge that was built or a highway that was repaired, but they will remember the monthly child tax credit payment. It is necessary that we pass that,” the source said.
Reporting by Jarrett Renshaw; Writing by Steve Holland; Editing by Heather Timmons, David Gregorio and Peter Cooney
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Nov 8 (Reuters) – Electric van-maker Workhorse Group (WKHS.O) said on Monday it was being investigated by the U.S. Department of Justice and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission related to trading in the company’s securities leading up to the award of a U.S. Postal Service (USPS) contract.
While Workhorse was orally informed of the DoJ investigation on Nov. 5, the company had received SEC’s letters in mid-October and earlier this month seeking information related to the issue.
Workhorse disclosed the investigations in a regulatory filing, adding that it has not received any subpoena or request for documents from the DoJ. (https://bit.ly/2YqXzil)
In June, Workhorse had challenged a decision by the U.S. Postal Service earlier this year to award a multibillion-dollar, 10-year contract to Oshkosh Defense to manufacture a new generation of postal delivery vehicles.
The company is also amid a management rejig with two of its top executives, including finance chief Steve Schrader, leaving the company in late September.
Reporting by Akash Sriram in Bengaluru; Editing by Shailesh Kuber
Libyan Foreign Minister Najla el-Mangoush attends a joint press conference at the conclusion of the Libya Stabilization Conference, in Tripoli, Libya, October 21, 2021. REUTERS/Hazem Ahmed
TRIPOLI, Nov 6 (Reuters) – Libya’s Presidency Council has suspended Foreign Minister Najla Mangoush for “administrative violations” and barred her from traveling, its spokesperson said on Saturday.
The spokesperson, Najwa Wahiba, confirmed the authenticity of a document circulating on social media ordering Mangoush’s suspension for carrying out foreign policy without coordination with the council.
Libya’s transitional Government of National Unity issued a statement early on Sunday rejecting the council’s decision and lauding the minister’s efforts, saying she would carry her duties normally.
The statement, issued on the government’s Facebook page, said that the Presidency Council has “no legal right to appoint or cancel the appointment of members of the executive authority, suspend them or investigate them.” It added that these powers are exclusive to the prime minister.
The Libyan Political Dialogue Forum, a U.N.-selected assembly that set a roadmap for peace in Libya, chose a three-man Presidency Council headed by Mohamed Menfi until election are held.
Disagreement over the council’s suspension of the foreign minister is likely to increase tensions between Libya’s rival factions as they try to work together after years of conflict.
(This story corrects government name in third paragraph)
Reporting by Ahmed Elumami in Tripoli, additional reporting by Moaz Abd-Alaziz and Nayera Abdallah in Cairo,
Writing by Angus McDowall and Nayera Abdallah
Editing by Peter Graff and Alistair Bell
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A woman holds a small bottle labeled with a “Coronavirus COVID-19 Vaccine” sticker and a medical syringe in front of displayed USA flag in this illustration taken, October 30, 2020. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic
WASHINGTON, Nov 6 (Reuters) – A U.S. federal appeals court issued a stay Saturday freezing the Biden administration’s efforts to require workers at U.S. companies with at least 100 employees be vaccinated against COVID-19 or be tested weekly, citing “grave statutory and constitutional” issues with the rule.
The ruling from the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit comes after numerous Republican-led states filed legal challenges against the new rule, which is set to take effect on Jan 4.
The White House declined to comment on the ruling, and referred questions to the Labor Department, where spokespeople did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The stay comes two days after the Biden administration unveiled the rule, which was immediately met with vows of legal action from Republican governors and others, who argued it overstepped the administration’s legal authority. read more
The action on the private-sector vaccinations was taken under the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s (OSHA) emergency authority over workplace safety, officials said. The rule applies to 84.2 million workers at 1.9 million private-sector employers, according to OSHA.
Saturday’s court order came in response to a joint petition from several businesses, advocacy groups, and the states of Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, South Carolina and Utah. The rule is also facing separate legal challenges before other courts. read more
The two-page order directs the Biden administration to respond to the request for a permanent injunction against the rule by 5pm Monday.
Reporting by Mike Scarcella, writing by Pete Schroeder
Editing by Alistair Bell
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WARSAW, Nov 5 (Reuters) – The death of a pregnant Polish woman has reignited debate over abortion in one of Europe’s most devoutly Catholic countries, with activists saying she could still be alive if it were not for a near total ban on terminating pregnancies.
Tens of thousands of Poles took to the streets to protest in January this year when a Constitutional Tribunal ruling from October 2020 that terminating pregnancies with foetal defects was unconstitutional came into effect, eliminating the most frequently used case for legal abortion.
Activists say Izabela, a 30-year-old woman in the 22nd week of pregnancy who her family said died of septic shock after doctors waited for her unborn baby’s heart to stop beating, is the first woman to die as a result of the ruling.
The government says the ruling was not to blame for her death, rather an error by doctors.
Izabela went to hospital in September after her waters broke, her family said. Scans had previously shown numerous defects in the foetus.
“The baby weighs 485 grams. For now, thanks to the abortion law, I have to lie down. And there is nothing they can do. They’ll wait until it dies or something begins, and if not, I can expect sepsis,” Izabela said in a text message to her mother, private broadcaster TVN24 reported.
When a scan showed the foetus was dead, doctors at the hospital in Pszczyna, southern Poland, decided to perform a Caesarean. The family’s lawyer, Jolanta Budzowska, said Izabela’s heart stopped on the way to the operating theatre and she died despite efforts to resuscitate her.
“I couldn’t believe it, I thought it wasn’t true,” Izabela’s mother Barbara told TVN24. “How could such a thing happen to her in the hospital? After all, she went there for help.”
Budzowska has started legal action over the treatment Izabela received, accusing doctors of malpractice, but she also called the death “a consequence of the verdict”.
In a statement on its website, the Pszczyna County Hospital said it shared the pain of all those affected by Izabela’s death, especially her family.
“It should … be emphasised that all medical decisions were made taking into account the legal provisions and standards of conduct in force in Poland,” the hospital said.
On Friday, the hospital said it had suspended two doctors who were on duty at the time of the death.
The Supreme Medical Chamber, which represents Polish doctors, said it was not immediately able to comment.
NOT ONE MORE
When the case came to public attention as a result of a tweet from Budzowska, the hashtag #anijednejwiecej or ‘not one more’ spread across social media and was taken up by protesters demanding a change to the law.
However, Poland’s ruling Law and Justice (PiS) party rejects claims that the Constitutional Tribunal ruling was to blame for Izabela’s death, attributing it to a mistake by doctors.
“When it comes to the life and health of the mother … if it is in danger, then terminating the pregnancy is possible and the ruling does not change anything,” Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said on Friday.
PiS lawmaker Bartlomiej Wroblewski told Reuters that the case should not be “instrumentalised and used to limit the right to life, to kill all sick or disabled children”.
But activists say the ruling has made doctors scared to terminate pregnancies even when the mother’s life is at risk.
“Izabela’s case clearly shows that the ruling of the Constitutional Tribunal has had a chilling effect on doctors,” Urszula Grycuk of the Federation for Women and Family Planning told Reuters.
“Even a condition that should not be questioned – the life and health of the mother – is not always recognised by doctors because they are afraid.”
In Ireland, the death of 31-year-old Savita Halappanavar in 2012 after she was refused a termination provoked a national outpouring of grief credited by many as a catalyst for the liberalisation of abortion laws.
Budzowska told Reuters that a debate similar to the one that took place in Ireland was underway in Poland.
“Both Izabela’s family and I personally hope that this case … will lead to a change in the law in Poland,” she said.
Poland’s president proposed changing the law last year to make abortions possible in cases where the foetus was not viable. The Law and Justice dominated parliament has yet to debate the bill.
Reporting by Anna Wlodarczak-Semczuk and Kacper Pempel; Additional reporting by Anna Koper; Writing by Alan Charlish; Editing by Giles Elgood
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
LONDON/BRUSSELS, Nov 5 (Reuters) – Britain will not trigger an emergency provision in its Brexit deal on Friday, its negotiator said on arriving for talks with the European Union’s pointman aimed at overcoming disagreements over trade across the Irish border.
The emergency measures, called Article 16, allows either side to take unilateral action if they deem their agreement governing post-Brexit trade is having a strongly negative impact on their interests.
Britain left the bloc last year, but it has since refused to implement some of the border checks between its province of Northern Ireland and EU member Ireland that the 27-nation union says London is obliged to under their divorce deal.
London says the checks are disproportionate and are heightening tensions in Northern Ireland, putting at risk a 1998 peace deal that largely brought an end to three decades of conflict between Irish Catholic nationalist militants and pro-British Protestant “loyalist” paramilitaries.
The EU says tighter controls are necessary to protect its single market of 450 million people.
“We are not going to trigger Article 16 today, but Article 16 is very much on the table,” Britain’s negotiator David Frost told journalists.
Later on Friday, a spokesperson for Prime Minister Boris Johnson told reporters Britain would press on with negotiations to try to resolve the issues with the so-called Northern Ireland protocol that governs post-Brexit trade with the province.
“We obviously want to agree consensual solutions on the protocol and we need to resolve these issues urgently, because the disruption on the ground in Northern Ireland hasn’t gone away,” the spokesperson said.
As expectations grow that London might resort to that option, Frost said the best way of avoiding it was “if we can reach an agreement, an essential agreement… that provides a sustainable solution”.
He said there was a “significant” gap between the EU and the UK on the matter and that time was running out for his negotiations with Maros Sefcovic, a deputy head of the bloc’s executive European Commission.
A spokesperson for the Commission told a regular news briefing on Friday the bloc was “fully concentrated on finding solutions that provide predictability for people” in Ireland and Northern Ireland that share a history of sectarian violence.
Asked whether it was planning what to do should London trigger Article 16, the Commission – which negotiates with Britain on behalf of EU countries – said earlier this week it always prepares for eventualities.
Reporting by Guy Faulconbridge in London, Christian Levaus and Johnny Cotton, Jan Strupczewski in Brussels and Elizabeth Piper in Glasgow; Writing by Gabrela Baczynska; Editing by William Maclean and Jan Harvey
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EMALAHLENI, South Africa, Nov 4 (Reuters) – In 2019, scientists working for South Africa’s government completed a study on the health impacts of pollution from the country’s sprawling coal industry.
The researchers for the state-owned Council for Scientific and Industrial Research had been assured by government authorities that their years-long study would be published, according to three people familiar with the matter.
So far, it has not seen the light of day.
The study, a copy of which was reviewed by Reuters, showed more than 5,000 South Africans die annually in the nation’s coal belt because the government has failed to fully enforce its own air quality standards. It also revealed that nearly a quarter of households in the region, where 3.6 million people live, have children with persistent asthma. That’s double the national rate.
South Africa’s government has since 2015 granted waivers from emissions limits to its indebted state power and fuel companies, Eskom and Sasol, allowing them to save money.
That kind of continuing government support highlights an issue in many coal-dependent nations, from Australia to Indonesia, that is hobbling the transition to cleaner energy. In producing countries, governments, businesses and local residents often see coal as an economic lifeline.
South Africa’s coal industry, the world’s fifth largest, employs 90,000 miners, generates 80% of the country’s electricity, and supplies the feedstock for about a quarter of the country’s liquid fuel for vehicles, all at a time of soaring unemployment and frequent blackouts.
The costs of a mammoth coal industry are also high, and not just for the climate. South Africa’s coal belt is blanketed in smog and coal ash; the stink of sulfur pervades. The area east of Johannesburg is among the world’s most polluted, experts say, rivaling Beijing and New Delhi.
In 2017, British air pollution expert Mike Holland calculated that the health impacts from Eskom’s emissions alone cost South Africa $2.37 billion every year.
Environment Minister Barbara Creecy, whose department commissioned the 2019 coal health study, declined to say why it remains unpublished. She said the government still intends to release it at some point.
“We understand that there are serious health challenges facing communities,” she said, adding that the government considers improving air quality “absolutely imperative.”
But Creecy’s agency – the Department of Fisheries, Forestry and the Environment – has publicly defended its lax enforcement of pollution regulations as an economic necessity in court battles with activists. In a recent filing, it said its main challenge is addressing pollution without hurting “the poor, who are desperate for job opportunities.”
COAL IN THE CROSSHAIRS
As the United Nations’ climate conference, COP26, in Glasgow gets underway this month, coal is in the crosshairs of a global push to replace it with cleaner fuels. read more
South Africa is the world’s 12th largest greenhouse gas emitter, according to the non-profit Global Carbon Atlas. This water-stressed country also stands to be one of the big losers from climate change. Temperatures in southern Africa are rising twice as fast as the global average, according to the International Panel on Climate Change, pushing the region’s northwestern deserts south.
In an effort to secure foreign investment, Eskom is pitching a $10 billion plan to shut most of its coal-fired plants by 2050 and embrace renewables like wind and solar, with financing from wealthy nations. The United States, Britain, France, Germany and the European Union on Tuesday provided that effort a big boost, offering $8.5 billion to help South Africa transition off coal.
Eskom’s green push, however, has put the company in conflict with Energy Minister Gwede Mantashe, who has called ditching coal “economic suicide.” read more
Mantashe represents a powerful constituency within the ruling ANC that includes workers’ unions on whose support the party depends to win elections. Those unions, like Mantashe, are concerned about job losses.
“We should not collapse our economy because they are greedy for green funding,” Matashe told a South Africa mining conference in October. He has previously said switching off the nation’s coal plants would allow South Africans to “breathe fresh air in the darkness.”
Mantashe declined to comment for this story.
Darkness is already a familiar experience in the coal belt. Power cuts are a daily reality for the shanties threaded between the mine shafts and cooling towers of towns like Emalahleni — “The Place of Coal” in the Zulu language.
If people stay, it is for the chance of a job.
‘HER CHEST WAS RASPING’
Mbali Matabule, poses for a photograph while her daughter Asemahle looks on at their home in Emalahleni, in Mpumalanga province, South Africa, June 2, 2021. REUTERS/Siphiwe Sibeko
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Mbali Matabule and her partner were senior high school students when they swapped phone numbers on a dirt track in Vosman, a township outside Emalahleni. After graduation, her partner found work in Sasol’s Secunda plant, which transforms coal into liquid fuel for cars. The following year, Matabule bore their first child, Princess.
His salary allowed them to feed and clothe their daughter and buy trappings of middle-class life: a TV, microwave, fridge and electric cooker to put in their shack at her parents’ compound.
Then, in May 2018, as she approached her fourth birthday, Princess started struggling to breathe. They rushed her to the hospital, where a doctor put a mask on Princess’s face attached to a nebuliser.
“They said she had asthma,” Matabule said. “I was thinking: why? She was not born with asthma.”
Toward the end of that year, they had a second child, Asemahle, who soon also developed breathing problems.
“Her chest was rasping,” Matabule said.
Hospital visits became routine, and the medical costs started to mount. Without health insurance, the couple was spending 2,500 rand ($184.03) a month on medical bills for their kids, nearly half Mbali’s partner’s salary.
AMONG THE WORLD’S WORST
Smog released from burning coal is laced with chemicals like sulphur and nitrogen oxides, mercury and lead, and radioactive elements like uranium and thorium.
“We know air pollution from coal causes lung problems, cardiac diseases. It impairs cognitive development of children,” said Mohammed Tayob, a doctor in Middleberg, one of the worst affected towns in the coal belt.
The 2019 CSIR study obtained by Reuters concluded that 5,125 lives could be saved every year in the coal belt by enforcing national air quality standards on soot, otherwise known as particulate matter.
The air in Emalahleni, it said, contains around 20% more particulate matter than the nation’s limit of 40 micrograms per cubic meter, and more than three times more than recommended by the World Health Organization.
The region’s sulphur dioxide levels, meanwhile, are off the charts. The non-profit Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air this month found Eskom alone emits more SO2 than the entire power sector of the United States and China combined.
Clearing up the air would require a crackdown on polluting industries.
Eskom environmental manager Deidre Herbst told Reuters the government waivers allowing his company to exceed pollution limits were an economic necessity: it would cost 300 billion rand ($20 billion) and take 10-15 years to fully meet national SO2 standards, leading to prolonged outages in the meantime.
“It’s impossible for us to become immediately compliant,” she said, and South Africa can’t simply switch off all its coal plants.
Sasol spokesperson Matebelo Motloung said the company’s emissions were permitted under its operating licenses and that the company hoped to embrace cleaner technologies in the future.
‘PEOPLE WERE SICK AND DYING’
Matabule had not imagined the haze in her neighborhood was behind her childrens’ illness until she attended a local meeting about air pollution and heard the stories of neighbors.
“I became so angry because nobody was doing anything, and people were sick and dying,” Matabule said.
But, like her husband who relies on coal for a paycheck, many in her community are wary of a transition to cleaner energy.
Vosman resident Valentia Msiza, 33, said her family has done well since her husband got his job in the coal mines. They worry a transition could leave them behind.
They, too, have a child with respiratory problems – and they can’t pay for his care without the husband’s salary and health insurance. The family is seeking a medical specialist to treat their toddler’s lung disease.
“That’s our last hope now,” Valentia said.
Editing by Richard Valdmanis and Brian Thevenot
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
A woman holds a small bottle labeled with a “Coronavirus COVID-19 Vaccine” sticker and a medical syringe in front of displayed Novavax logo in this illustration taken, October 30, 2020. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic
Nov 1 (Reuters) – Novavax Inc (NVAX.O) expects regulators in India, the Philippines and elsewhere to make a decision on its COVID-19 vaccine within “weeks,” its chief executive told Reuters, after the shot on Monday received its first emergency use authorization (EUA) from Indonesia.
Novavax shares were up about 13% after the company also said it had filed an application for emergency use of the vaccine to Canada and the European Medicines Agency.
For Indonesia, the shot will be manufactured by the world’s largest vaccine manufacturer, Serum Institute in India (SII), and sold under the Indian company’s brand name, Covovax. Novavax said initial shipments into Indonesia are expected to begin imminently.
The World Health Organization (WHO) is also reviewing Novavax’s regulatory filing and the U.S. drugmaker expects that review to be resolved in the coming weeks, Chief Executive Stanley Erck told Reuters in a phone interview on Monday.
A green light from the WHO would set the stage for Novavax to begin shipping doses to the COVAX program that supplies shots to low-income countries. Novavax and SII have together committed to provide more than 1.1 billion doses to COVAX, which is co-led by the WHO.
“I think we’ll get some doses to COVAX this year,” Erck said. “But I think (Novavax is) going to really start being able to ship large quantity to COVAX in the first quarter” of 2022.
Erck said Novavax has resolved all of its manufacturing challenges and does not expect regulators to have any further concerns about its production processes.
He said Novavax is “in dialogue with the U.S. FDA and … we expect a full submission within the next several weeks.”
Novavax had delayed filing for U.S. approval, and Politico reported last month that the company faced production and quality problems.
SII is authorized to make the Novavax vaccine and the U.S. company said it will apply for regulatory authorization for other facilities, such as its plant in the Czech republic, in the coming weeks.
Indonesia is slated to receive 20 million doses of the protein-based vaccine this year, according to the government.
Penny Lukito, chief of the National Agency for Drug and Food Control of Indonesia, did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.
Novavax has so far applied for EUA in various countries, including the UK, Australia, India and the Philippines.
“It will be weeks, not months, for them to review” Novavax’s regulatory submissions and potentially clear the shot for use, Erck said.
The company, along with Japanese partner Takeda Pharmaceutical Co (4502.T), said on Friday it was preparing to seek regulatory approval for a rollout in Japan early next year. read more
The Novavax shot was shown to be more than 90% effective, including against a variety of concerning variants of the coronavirus in a large, late-stage U.S.-based trial.
Reporting by Dania Nadeem in Bengaluru and Carl O’Donnell in New York; additional reporting by Leroy Leo in Bengaluru and Stanley Widianto in Jakarta; Editing by Maju Samuel and Bill Berkrot
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
LONDON, Nov 1 (Reuters) – Barclays (BARC.L) said on Monday that chief executive Jes Staley is to stand down following British regulators’ investigations into his ties with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
C.S. Venkatakrishnan, head of global markets, will replace him as CEO with immediate effect.
Barclays said it was made aware on Friday evening of the preliminary conclusions from the Financial Conduct Authority and the Prudential Regulatory Authority’s investigation into Staley’s characterisation to Barclays of his relationship with Epstein and the subsequent description of that relationship in Barclays’ response to the regulator.
“In view of those conclusions, and Mr Staley’s intention to contest them, the Board and Mr Staley have agreed that he will step down from his role as Group Chief Executive and as a director of Barclays,” the bank said.
“It should be noted that the investigation makes no findings that Mr Staley saw, or was aware of, any of Mr Epstein’s alleged crimes, which was the central question underpinning Barclays’ support for Mr Staley following the arrest of Mr Epstein in the summer of 2019.”
Barclays said last year that Britain’s financial regulators were probing links between Staley and Epstein, who killed himself while awaiting trial on sex trafficking offences. Staley has previously said his relationship with Epstein ended in late 2015, and that he regretted having any relationship with him.
The FCA and PRA said in a statement they could not comment further on the Epstein investigation.
“The board is disappointed at this outcome. Mr Staley has run the Barclays Group successfully since December 2015 with real commitment and skill,” the bank said in a statement.
UK regulators launched their investigations into links between Staley and Epstein after JPMorgan (JPM.N) provided them with emails the two exchanged when Staley was the head of JPMorgan’s private bank, the Financial Times reported last year.
The bank’s share price has fallen 9% since Staley became CEO.
Barclays fought off a campaign launched by activist investor Edward Bramson in 2018 to have Staley removed. Bramson sold his stake earlier this year.
Britain’s financial regulators and Barclays fined Staley a combined 1.1 million pounds ($1.50 million) in 2018 after he tried to identify a whistleblower who sent letters criticising a Barclays employee.
Reporting by Rachel Armstrong; editing by Louise Heavens, Kirsten Donovan
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
Passengers wait to check in at Tom Bradley international terminal at LAX airport, as the global outbreak of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) continues, in Los Angeles, California, U.S., November 23, 2020. REUTERS/Lucy Nicholson
WASHINGTON, Oct 30 (Reuters) – The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said on Saturday that unvaccinated foreign nationals under the age of 18 traveling to the United States by air do not have to self-quarantine upon arrival.
CDC Director Rochelle Walensky on Saturday signed a revised order clarifying that foreign national children who have not been vaccinated against COVID-19 do not need to isolate for seven days upon arrival in the United States.
A CDC order issued on Monday had raised alarm among some foreign travelers that their children would need to quarantine for that long after arriving.
On Nov. 8, the United States is lifting the extraordinary travel restrictions that have barred most non-U.S. citizens who within the last 14 days have been in Britain, the 26 Schengen countries in Europe without border controls, Ireland, China, India, South Africa, Iran and Brazil. It is also imposing new rules requiring nearly all foreign adult air visitors to be vaccinated against COVID-19.
Airlines and others had pressed for the changes for foreign children, saying it would harm international tourism if children had to self-quarantine upon arrival. The exemption from self-quarantine also applies to unvaccinated foreign visitors who are part of clinical trials.
The CDC said earlier this week that non-tourist travelers from nearly 50 countries with nationwide vaccination rates of less than 10% will also be eligible for exemption from the vaccine requirement but will need to self-quarantine for seven days upon arrival.
Those receiving an exemption will generally need to be vaccinated within 60 days after arriving in the United States.
The CDC has said it will accept any vaccine authorized for use by U.S. regulators or the World Health Organization and will accept mixed-dose coronavirus vaccines.
On Friday, the Homeland Security Department said travelers should be prepared for “longer than normal wait times” starting Nov. 8 when the U.S. allows fully vaccinated tourists to cross land borders. The United States has barred non-essential travelers crossing land borders from Mexico and Canada since March 2020.
Reporting by David Shepardson
Editing by Sonya Hepinstall
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