US to lift COVID travel ban for fully jabbed travellers from 33 countries; Details here

The United States is all set to reopen international borders for fully COVID vaccinated foreign visitors from 33 countries from November 8, reported BBC. Ending the year-long COVID-related travel bans, the US will now allow travellers, who have completed double doses of vaccines against COVID-19, to enter the country via International flights and border crossings, the White House announced on Friday. However, the policy of arrival into the country will be "guided by public health, stringent and consistent," White House Spokesperson Kevin Munoz wrote on Twitter.

Starting next month, the new rules will apply to the group of 26 European nations called the Schengen countries, including Belgium, Estonia, Italy, Greece, Latvia, Germany, and 20 others. Additionally, the US will also welcome fully jabbed travellers from the UK, Brazil, India, Iran, South Africa and Ireland. The resumption of international travel is expected to revive the US economy.

New guidelines for vaccinated travellers in US

Currently, not all technical and logistical details have been publicly announced by the White House. As per the Associated Press, the new policy announced currently is quite similar but not identical to those announced last month. Here are details of the previously outlined regulations.

1. Air passengers must have double vaccination proof before boarding a US-bound flight.
2. Vaccinated air passengers must have a negative COVID-19 test from at least 72hours before the scheduled travel date.
3. The vaccines should be approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the World Health Organisation (WHO). (Currently which includes AstraZeneca, Johnson and Johnson, Moderna, Pfizer-BioNTech, Sinopharm and Sinovac)
4. The travellers will be tested for COVID-19 before entering the United States and while leaving the country.
5. The travellers will be put under contact tracing, which means US-bound airlines will collect information such as phone numbers and email addresses of an individual.

The non-essential travel ban through land and air was imposed in March 2020 to mitigate the skyrocketing cases of COVID-19 in the country. The restrictions began with keeping Chinese travellers out of the country in January 2020 and later the ban was imposed to many more without any clear information on when and how the restrictions were to be lifted. The White House on Tuesday also announced that it has planned to revoke restrictions on land and ferry travels for fully vaccinated travellers from Canada and Mexico.

(With inputs from AP)

(Image: AP)