WASHINGTON: Good news for travellers to the USA! The White House Monday announced to drop Covid vaccine mandate for international travellers entering the United States next week. The vaccine mandate was imposed on federal employees, contractors and international air travellers in a bid to promote the health and safety of individuals and the efficiency of workplaces.
The mandate will come to an end the same day the national public health emergency related to the pandemic will be lifted. National public health emergency– a status that issued Americans special access to Medicaid, the program that provides health coverage to low-income people, along with emergency pandemic services.
“The requirement will cease “at the end of the day on May 11,” the Biden administration said in a statement
“Additionally, HHS and DHS announced today that they will start the process to end their vaccination requirements for Head Start educators, CMS-certified healthcare facilities, and certain noncitizens at the land border. In the coming days, further details related to ending these requirements will be provided,” the White House said.
Sharing its stats on the coronavirus, the White House said, “vaccine requirements bolstered vaccination across the nation, and our broader vaccination campaign has saved millions of lives.”
In ending the mandate, the US joins Canada, Mexico and dozens of other countries that have dropped their vaccine rules for visitors. The Biden administration dropped its must test negative on arrival rule, but kept in place the COVID vaccination mandate.
Since a while, tourism organizations have pushed the Biden administration to lift the mandate that visitors prove they’ve been fully vaccinated, defined by the Centers for Disease Control as two weeks after their final dose of an accepted vaccine.