The US will reopen its land and air borders on November 8 to foreign visitors fully vaccinated against Covid-19 — ending a over 18-month ban on travel from much of the world that separated families, hobbled tourism and strained diplomatic ties.
The decision to ease restrictions was “guided by public health, stringent and consistent,” said White House assistant press secretary Kevin Munoz in a very tweet announcing the new policy.
He said the “announcement and date applies to both international air and land travel.”
The new policy was quickly hailed by the ecu Union’s ambassador within the US, Stavros Lambrinidis, who called it “important and extremely welcome news” and said in an exceedingly Twitter post that more details were expected to follow.
In an attempt to slow the spread of the coronavirus, US borders were closed after March 2020 to travelers from large parts of the globe, including the eu Union, Britain and China, India and Brazil. Overland visitors from Mexico and Canada were also banned.
The months of restrictions affecting many numerous people helped fuel both personal and economic suffering brought on by the Covid-19 pandemic.
Testing and tracing
Not all the technical and logistical details of the new policy have yet been announced.
But officials had previously outlined it, saying that vaccinated air passengers will have to be tested within three days before travel, and airlines are going to be required to place in situ a contact tracing system.
US health authorities have said that every one vaccines approved by the Food and Drug Administration and also the World Health Organization would be accepted for entry by air.
At the instant, this includes the AstraZeneca, Johnson & Johnson, Moderna, Pfizer/BioNTech, Sinopharm and Sinovac vaccines.
Earlier in the week, a White House source said the land border opening would happen in two phases.
Initially, vaccines are required for “non-essential” trips — like visiting family or tourism — though unvaccinated travelers will still be allowed into the country for “essential” trips as they need been for the last year and a half.
A second phase beginning in early January 2022 would require all visitors to be fully vaccinated to enter the us by land, regardless of the rationale for his or her trip.
The new schedule means the land border restrictions, which had been set to expire on October 21, will need to be extended another time before the new rules enter into force, the White House official indicated.
Despite the strict border closures, the us has not yet mandated vaccines for domestic travelling.
