Washington: The Senate on Monday signed an order imposing new vaccine requirements for foreign national flyers and lifting travel restrictions on China, India and much of Europe effective Nov. 8.”It is in the interests of the United States to move away from the country-by-country restrictions previously applied during the COVID-19 pandemic and to adopt an air travel policy that relies primarily on vaccination to advance the safe resumption of international air travel to the United States, said Prez Biden.”
The US had first imposed travel restrictions in early 2020 to break the chain and mitigate the spread. As per law, non-US citizens who within the last 14 days had been to the United Kingdom, the 26 Schengen countries in Europe without border controls, Ireland, China, India, South Africa, Iran and Brazil were implicated to abide by quarantine rules.
Officials confirmed that children under 18 are exempt from the new vaccine policy and so were adults with co-morbidities. Those receiving an exemption are mandated to be vaccinated if they intend to remain in the United States for more than 2 months.The order also issued detailed protocols airlines must follow to confirm foreign travelers have been vaccinated before boarding US-bound flights.
The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), on Monday released new contact tracing rules requiring airlines to collect information from international air travellers “to follow up with travelers who have been exposed to COVID-19 variants or other pathogens.”
All foreign nationals are required to produce their vaccination documents alongside which airlines must confirm the last dose was at least two weeks earlier than the travel date. A negative RT-PCR within 72 hours of departure has been mandated. While, unvaccinated Americans and foreign nationals receiving exemptions are subjected to provide negative COVID-19 testing, within 24 hours of departure.