President Donald Trump has repeatedly boasted of his ban on travelers from mainland China to stem the spread of COVID-19. But nearly 8,000 people from Hong Kong and Macao were let in soon after the ban was imposed.
last month, remain the administration’s first line of defense against foreign sources of the pandemic.
There is no clear evidence that the small but steady flow of people from Hong Kong and Macau introduced COVID-19 cases inside the U.S. in January or in the four months since, but the exemptions “certainly undercut the purpose of the ban,” said Dr. Ronald Waldman, a professor of Global Health at George Washington University.
A second administration official noted that the decision to impose a travel ban came after hundreds of thousands of travelers had entered the U.S. from China in January. That same month, more than 12,700 people entered the U.S. from the two Chinese territories, Commerce records show. Former Ambassador Richard Boucher, who was Hong Kong consul general in the 1990s, said that under the Hong Kong Policy Act passed by Congress in 1992, “we are obligated to treat Hong Kong as a special jurisdiction as long as it functions independently.”
“Once we see that there is significant human to human transmission so it’s not just, hey, there is something going on there we go to what is called a level one. And right now that’s Hong Kong,” the CDC’s director, Dr. Robert Redfield, testified during a House hearing on Feb. 27. Federal health officials planned to funnel the thousands of people returning from China through 11 airports for health screenings over the several weeks. Those with symptoms would be quarantined by the CDC. Others would be allowed to go on their way, but be monitored by state and local health departments, who would be responsible for contacting the travelers within 72 hours to advise them to isolate themselves for two weeks and to monitor whether they developed symptoms.
obtained by the AP through a public records request. “Knew it would not be perfect but it has begun.”between New Hampshire officials stated on Feb. 7. “The records were poor quality, and the data wasn’t complete enough for anyone to be able to do anything with,” Pauley told the AP.
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