The White House on Tuesday will announce it is launching a series of expert working groups with Canada, Mexico, the European Union and the United Kingdom to determine how best to reopen travel safely, a White House official told Reuters.

The announcement, another administration official said, is a strong indication the Biden administration will not move quickly to lift restrictions that bar much of the world from entering the United States, given the time it will take to set up these task forces and hold reviews.

"While we are not reopening travel today, we hope that these expert working groups will help us use our collective expertise to chart a path forward, with a goal of reopening international travel with our key partners when it is determined that it is safe to do so," the White House official said.

The White House official said "any decisions will be fully guided by the objective analysis and recommendations by public health and medical experts," and noted the working groups will be led by the White House COVID Response Team and the National Security Council and include the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and other agencies.

 

Airlines and others have pressed the administration to lift the restrictions that bar most non-U.S. citizens who have been in the United Kingdom, the 26 Schengen nations in Europe without border controls, Ireland, China, India, South Africa, Iran and Brazil. The United States also bars most non-essential travel at its land borders with Mexico and Canada.