A White House official today, announced that the U.S. will soon enforce a reopening of its borders to most foreign travellers as long as they’re fully vaccinated against Covid-19.
The directive for international travellers will be in full effect in early November, according to the White House Covid-19 coordinator, Jeff Zients said.
These measures have been imposed on visitors to the United States in an effort to reduce and control the spread of the virus. This comes after European countries made statements complaining that the U.S. government has maintained travel restrictions on vaccinated European citizens despite that the country has continued to allow entry to vaccinated Americans.
The new rule states that travellers will have to show proof of vaccination to board planes to the U.S., and stricter measures will be in place for coronavirus testing and contact tracing.
According to Zents, the definition of “fully vaccinated” can only be determined by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Also, measures to be enforced would include stricter testing requirements, including for unvaccinated Americans.
U.S. airline shares have been triggered to shed premarket losses, upon the announcement of the new directive. Following news of these recent measures, European airline stocks have also reacted positively to record gains.
From now till early November, people who aren’t citizens or permanent residents who have been within the Schengen area of Europe or the U.K. within the past 14 days, regardless of vaccination status are still barred from direct entry into the United States.
Recall that, the first round of travel restrictions by the U.S. government was imposed on China in January 2020. Subsequently, the U.S. ban had expanded to include non-US citizens who had recently visited the UK, the 26-nation Schengen bloc in Europe, Brazil, Ireland, India, Iran and South Africa.