In a media conference on Monday White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said that the US will not lift any existing travel restrictions "at this point" because of concerns over the extremely contagious Delta variant of COVID-19 and the rising number of cases in the country.

Last week the Delta variant accounted for more than 80% of new US COVID-19 cases, and new case numbers were up 53% from the previous week.

For months, airlines and the US tourism industry have been lobbying the White House to end restrictions. The decision not to lift restrictions now effectively ends any hope of renewed international inbound tourism to the US in summer 2021.

It's now speculated that the White House won't be revisiting the issue of reduced travel restrictions until at least September.

Since 2020, US travel restrictions have barred from entry most non-citizens who have in the past 14 days been in the 26 Schengen countries, the UK, Ireland, China, India, South Africa, Iran or Brazil.

US land borders with Canada and Mexico remain closed until at least 21 August.