White House says no final decision on intl traveler vaccination rule

WASHINGTON -- The White House said on Thursday that the US government has not yet made a final decision on whether to require international travelers to be fully vaccinated.

"That is certainly under strong consideration, but it is under a policy process review right now that I won't get ahead of myself," White House press secretary Jen Psaki said at a daily briefing.

"While there hasn't been a final decision made, how the interagency groups are looking at this is with the objective of taking steps that will return international travel at a moment when it's appropriate. Right now, we're not at that point because of the rise of the Delta variant but we want to have a process in place for when we hit that moment," Psaki said.

White House coronavirus response coordinator Jeff Zients also said on Thursday that there has been no decision about how to reopen international travel, implying other options were being considered.

Multiple media outlets reported on Wednesday that the Biden administration is developing a plan to require foreign visitors to have COVID-19 vaccinations.

The COVID-19 pandemic is making a fierce comeback to the United States with its Delta variant, which accounts for an estimated 93.4 percent of all new COVID-19 cases in the country during the last two weeks of July, according to data from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Wednesday.