The White House has not made any final decisions on imposing domestic travel restrictions, press secretary Jen Psaki said Thursday.
The comment from the White House came after a report said the administration was considering implementing one around Florida due to coronavirus cases.
“Well, I’ve seen those reports. We are always considering what steps are necessary to keep the American people safe, but we are not currently in the process of — no decisions have been made around additional public health measures that would delay or would change, I should say, domestic travel considerations,” Psaki said at a press briefing.
The Miami Herald reported Wednesday that the administration was weighing domestic travel restrictions that would target states that have been severely impacted by coronavirus variants, including Florida and California.
Gov. Ron DeSantis (R), speaking to reporters before Psaki’s briefing Thursday, called it an “absurd report” and sought to tie it to the Biden administration’s stance on immigration.
“I think it’s an absurd report that they would be doing that,” DeSantis said. “It would be unconstitutional, it would be unwise, and it would be unjust.”
The United States has seen its overall number of daily infections stabilize a bit in recent weeks, but there has been a rise in variations that originated in the United Kingdom and South Africa that are considered more contagious.
The Biden administration has imposed international travel restrictions to try and stem the spread of the virus, but domestic travel restrictions would mark a new step taken by the government that would, most likely, face backlash.
Former President Trump said on multiple occasions last year he was open to restricting travel from “hot spots” in the United States. But health experts questioned the benefits if the virus had already widely spread across the United States, and economists warned of dire consequences for the airline industry.