A group of five Republican senators, led by Marco Rubio, has called on President Joe Biden’s administration to institute a travel ban between the United States and China due to a recent surge in respiratory illness cases. Rubio, the top Republican on the Senate Intelligence Committee, emphasized the need to restrict travel until more information about the new illness’s dangers is known.
The spike in cases gained global attention last week when the World Health Organization (WHO) requested additional information from China. The request was prompted by a report from the Program for Monitoring Emerging Diseases highlighting clusters of undiagnosed pneumonia in children.
The White House and the Chinese Embassy in Washington have not issued immediate comments on the senators’ request. Maria Van Kerkhove, acting director of the WHO’s department of epidemic and pandemic preparedness and prevention, suggested earlier this week that the increase might be linked to more children contracting pathogens they had avoided during two years of COVID-19 restrictions.
In recent months, the U.S. and China have increased flights between the two countries, albeit still below 2019 levels. As of Nov. 9, the number of weekly flights for each country rose to 35, up from 12 in August.
The letter from the senators comes in the context of past actions, as then-President Donald Trump implemented restrictions on non-U.S. citizens who had been in China in the preceding two weeks in January 2020 due to concerns about COVID-19. However, he did not limit or restrict flights between the two nations.
The United States lifted unprecedented travel restrictions for fully vaccinated international visitors in November 2021, including those from China. Another requirement for air travelers to test negative before arrival was rescinded in June 2022. In January of the same year, the U.S. started mandating negative COVID tests for air passengers after Beijing shifted its strict zero-COVID policies, removing the requirements in March.
