US President Joe Biden, on October 25, signed an order imposing new vaccine requirements for most international air travellers and relaxed severe travel restrictions on India, China and much of Europe, announced the White House. These changes will be effective from November 8.
The revised travel guidelines also clarified that all foreign nationals entering the US via air travel would require to be fully vaccinated before boarding a flight to the country.
As per the White House guidelines, international air travellers will have to show their vaccination status. Airlines will be required to match the name and date of birth to confirm the passengers are the same individuals reflected on the proof of vaccination. It also will need to determine that the record was issued by an official source such as the public health agency, the government agency where the vaccine was given. Considering this information, airlines would ensure that the passengers meet Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)’s definition for fully vaccinated like vaccine product, a number of vaccine doses received administration date(s), sites like vaccination clinic, health care facility, etc. of vaccination.
The US government will work closely with the airlines to ensure that these new requirements are successfully implemented, a senior official at the Biden cabinet was quoted as saying.
The new travel advisory includes new protocols around testing Covid-19. As part of it, unvaccinated travellers whether US Citizens, lawful permanent residents (LPRs), or the small number of accepted unvaccinated foreign nationals will now have to take RT-PCR within one day of departure.
Apart from the enhancements in test requirements, the revised international air travel protocols strengthen contact tracing and masking. Foreign nationals, including Indians, will have to go through the strict safety protocols that follow the science and public health to improve the safety of US citizens in America, as well as the safety of international air travellers, a senior administration official was quoted as saying.
Non-citizens, non-immigrant air travellers to the US states, on the other hand, will also be required to be fully inoculated and to provide proof of Covid-19 vaccination status before boarding a flight to the US, with limited exceptions.
The extraordinary US travel restrictions came into force in early 2020 to address the spread of Covid-19. The restrictions prohibited most non-American citizens who have been in the UK, the 26 Schengen countries in Europe without border controls, Ireland, China, India, South Africa, Iran, and Brazil in the past 14 days. With the revision of travel guidelines, Joe Biden will lift all travel restrictions for the US-specific to all countries and regions.
