President Biden’s upcoming COVID-19 summit in conjunction with this week’s United Nations General Assembly meeting is designed to rally world leaders and others around ending the pandemic and better preparing for the next one, a senior administration official said Monday on a phone call with reporters.
“On Wednesday, President Biden will host a summit on COVID-19 to rally the world urgently to work towards ending this pandemic as rapidly as possible and building our systems better, to be able to handle the next pandemic,” the official said. “He believes that it’s high time for the world to come together — not just national leaders, but [also] international institutions, the private sector, non-governmental organizations, all of the actors who collectively have the capacity to beat COVID-19 — and he is going to call for an ‘all hands on deck’ effort that can end this pandemic much more rapidly than if we allow for things to unfold without the kind of focused, sustained energy and effort that is required.”
In particular, “the summit will involve setting bold goals to hit on everything from vaccinations to the supply of life-saving medications and technologies,” the official continued. “And it will also set out a pattern of high-level meetings through the coming months to ensure that we are holding ourselves and the world accountable to follow through on achieving these goals. The United States will also have a series of announcements about our own further contributions above and beyond what we’ve already contributed to ending the pandemic globally.”
The official also highlighted Monday’s announcement of a change to U.S. COVID-19 protocols for international travelers entering the U.S., explaining that while visitors from certain countries will no longer be denied entry, all adult foreign nationals will need to be fully vaccinated. “Critically, for our European partners, and for the U.K., this policy means that we will no longer be implementing the current 212(f) travel policies for individual countries as of early November,” the official said. Instead, “we’ll be moving to a consistent requirement for all international air travelers coming to the United States. But we’re very proud of the fact that we’ve been able to develop a protocol that will permit travel by individuals, families, and businesspeople from the E.U. and the U.K., as well as from Brazil and India and other countries to the United States, with proof of vaccination.”
The 212(f) travel policies — which refer to a section of the Immigration and Nationality Act — were included in a January 25 executive order that barred entry into the U.S. by residents of the U.K., the European Union, Ireland, and Brazil due to the pandemic.
Source: MedicalNewsToday.com
