WASHINGTON — President-elect Joe Biden’s incoming White House press secretary says his administration does not intend to lift coronavirus travel restrictions for Europe, the U.K., Ireland and Brazil.

The message from Jen Psaki came Monday evening after the White House said President Donald Trump had lifted the restrictions for those countries, effective Jan. 26.

Psaki then tweeted: “On the advice of our medical team, the Administration does not intend to lift these restrictions on 1/26. In fact, we plan to strengthen public health measures around international travel in order to further mitigate the spread of COVID-19."

She added, “With the pandemic worsening, and more contagious variants emerging around the world, this is not the time to be lifting restrictions on international travel."

Trump imposed the travel restrictions early in the pandemic to slow the spread of the coronavirus to the U.S. They prevented most people without American citizenship or residency from traveling to the U.S. from the affected regions.

Under the Trump administration's plan, the restrictions were to end Jan. 26, when a new CDC requirement that all international travelers to the United States obtain a negative virus test result within three days of flying to the U.S. takes effect.

Trump said he wanted to keep the China and Iran restrictions in place because of "their lack of transparency, and their lack of cooperation with the United States thus far in combatting the pandemic."

Note: This article was updated with the Biden administration's reaction to the Trump administration's announcement.