US senators urge Joe Biden to impose travel ban on China

WASHINGTON, December 2

Five Republican senators led by Marco Rubio on Friday asked President Joe Biden’s administration to ban travel between the United States and China after a spike in Chinese respiratory illness cases.

Closely watching pneumonia rise

The US is closely monitoring the uptick in respiratory illnesses, likely pneumonia, in China. “We are seeing seasonal trends. Nothing is appearing out of the ordinary,” said an White House official on Saturday

“We should immediately restrict travel between the United States and (China) until we know more about the dangers posed by this new illness,” said the letter signed by Rubio, the top Republican on the Senate Intelligence Committee, along with Senators JD. Vance, Rick Scott, Tommy Tuberville and Mike Braun.

The rise in cases became a global issue last week when the World Health Organization asked China for more information, citing a report on clusters of undiagnosed pneumonia in children by the Program for Monitoring Emerging Diseases.