US TRAVEL BAN14 Jun 2020 16:26
Dr Anthony FauciGetty ImagesCopyright: Getty Images
It will likely be "months" before travellers will be allowed into the US from Britain, according to Dr Anthony Fauci, a leading member of the White House Coronavirus Task Force.
Since March, America has placed travel ban on visitors from the UK, China, Brazil and the European Union. Dr Fauci told the Daily Telegraph that the restriction could be in place until a coronavirus vaccine is developed.
"I don't think there's going to be an immediate pull back for those kinds of restrictions. My feeling, looking at what's going on with the infection rate, I think it's more likely measured in months rather than weeks," said Dr Fauci.
He also noted that while infection rates are dropping in cities, including New York, Chicago and New Orleans, cases are still spreading elsewhere in the country
"[The virus] could go on for a couple of cycles, coming back and forth," he added. "I would hope to get to some degree of real normality within a year or so. But I don't think it's this winter or fall, we'll be seeing it for a bit more."
But Dr Fauci expressed optimism about the chances of a vaccine being developed by the end of the year.
“You can never guarantee success with a vaccine, that’s foolish to do so, there’s so many possibilities of things going wrong," he said. "[But] everything we have seen from early results, it’s conceivable we get two or three vaccines that are successful.”