The US will reopen in November to air travellers from 33 countries, including SA, China, India, Brazil and most of Europe, who are fully vaccinated against Covid-19, the White House said this week, easing tough pandemic-related restrictions that started early last year.
The decision, announced by White House coronavirus response coordinator Jeff Zients, marked an abrupt shift for president Joe Biden’s administration, which said last week it was not the right time to lift any restrictions amid rising Covid-19 cases.
The US had lagged many other countries in lifting such restrictions and allies welcomed the move. The US restrictions have barred travellers from most of the world, including tens of thousands of foreigners with relatives or business links in the US.
The US will admit fully vaccinated air travellers from the 26 so-called Schengen countries in Europe, including France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Switzerland and Greece, as well as Britain, Ireland, China, India, SA, Iran and Brazil. The unprecedented US restrictions have barred non-US citizens who were in those countries within the past 14 days.
A fantastic boost for business and trade, and great that family and friends on both sides of the pond can be reunited once again.
— British prime minister Boris Johnson
Restrictions on non-US citizens were first imposed on air travellers from China in January 2020 by then-president Donald Trump and then extended to dozens of other countries, without any clear metrics for how and when to lift them.
Zients did not give a precise start date for the new rules beyond saying “early November” and many details of the new policy are still being decided.
Separately this week, the US extended its pandemic-related restrictions at land borders with Canada and Mexico that bar non-essential travel such as tourism until October 21. It gave no indication if it would apply the new vaccine rules to those land border crossings.
The US has allowed foreign air travellers from more than 150 countries throughout the pandemic, a policy that critics said made little sense because some countries with high Covid-19 rates were not on the restricted list, while some on the list had the pandemic more under control.
This week’s action means Covid-19 vaccine requirements will now apply to nearly all foreigners flying to the US, including those not subject to the prior restrictions.
Americans travelling from abroad who are not vaccinated will face tougher rules than vaccinated citizens, including needing to show proof of a negative Covid-19 test within a day of travel and proof of purchasing a viral test to be taken after arrival.
Airlines for America, an industry trade group, said until late August, international air travel was down 43% from pre-pandemic levels.
The announcement comes as Biden made his first UN General Assembly speech on Tuesday and hosts leaders from Britain, India, Japan and Australia this week.
White House spokesperson Jen Psaki said the policy was not timed for diplomacy. “If we were going to make things much easier for ourselves, we would have done it before June, when the president had his first foreign trip, or earlier this summer. This is when the process concluded,” she said. “We’re basing it on science.”
US Covid-19 infections and deaths have skyrocketed since June as the Delta variant spread, particularly among the unvaccinated. Nearly 29,000 new US cases were reported on Sunday.
British prime minister Boris Johnson called the announcement “a fantastic boost for business and trade, and great that family and friends on both sides of the pond can be reunited once again”. Germany’s US ambassador, Emily Haber, said on Twitter it was “hugely important to promote people-to-people contacts and transatlantic business”.
It will have less impact on travel from China, which requires its residents to quarantine for at least two weeks on return home. International flights from China are capped and running at about 2% of 2019 levels, a situation expected to last until the second half of next year.
Foreigners will need to present proof of vaccination before travel and will not be required to quarantine on arrival.
The White House said the final decision on what vaccines would be accepted is up to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
The CDC this week pointed to its prior guidance when asked what vaccines it will accept.
“The CDC considers someone fully vaccinated with any FDA-authorised or approved vaccines and any vaccines that (the World Health Organisation) has authorised,” said spokesperson Kristen Nordlund. That list could change pending additions by either agency, she added.
Exceptions include children not yet eligible for shots.
irlines heavily lobbied the White House to lift the restrictions and it has been working since August on the new plan.
The US Travel Association trade group previously estimated that the US restrictions, if they ran to the end of the year, would cost the American economy $325bn (R4.81-trillion).
Zients said last week that given the rise of the Delta variant, it was not the right time to lift travel restrictions. Asked what had changed since then, Zients cited rising global vaccinations, adding: “The new system allows us to implement strict protocols to prevent the spread of Covid-19.”
The new system would include collecting contact tracing data from passengers travelling into the US to enable the CDC to contact travellers exposed to Covid-19, Zients said.
The administration has been considering imposing vaccine requirements for foreigners since May, officials said, but the White House only decided on Friday to move forward.
— Reuters
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