United States unveils new coronavirus rules for international travel | Coronavirus pandemic News

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Beginning November 8, adult visitors to the United States will need to be fully vaccinated against COVID-19, with a few exceptions.

The vast majority of adult travelers who wish to travel to the United States will need to be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 starting November 8.

All visitors those over two years old, regardless of their vaccination status, will also have to present a negative coronavirus test carried out within three days of travel, according to an order signed by US President Joe Biden on Monday.

Airlines will need to collect passenger details to facilitate contact tracing and keep them for 30 days.

Children and adolescents under 18 will be exempt from vaccination travel rules.

The new policy comes as the Biden administration moves away from restrictions that ban non-essential travel from several dozen countries – including most of Europe, China, Brazil, South Africa, l ‘India and Iran – in order to focus on classifying individuals according to the risk they pose to others.

“It is in the interests of the United States to move away from the country-by-country restrictions previously enforced during the COVID-19 pandemic and adopt an air transport policy that relies primarily on vaccination to advance the recovery in safe international air travel. in the United States, ”Biden’s order said.

Travel restrictions in the United States were first imposed in January 2020 to stop the spread of COVID-19.

As part of the new travel policy, vaccinated individuals entering the United States will need to show proof of a negative COVID-19 test within three days of travel, while unvaccinated people must show a test taken within one day of travel.

All children over two years old entering the country will need to take a COVID-19 test.

Non-tourist travelers from around 50 countries with nationwide vaccination rates of less than 10 percent will also be eligible for exemption from vaccination rules.

People with this exemption will generally need to be vaccinated if they intend to stay in the United States for more than 60 days.

Other people who will be exempt from the vaccination requirement include people who have participated in COVID-19 clinical trials and those who have had severe allergic reactions to vaccines.

International travelers will need to provide vaccination documentation from an “official source” and airlines must confirm that the last dose was taken at least two weeks before the date of travel.

The United States will accept any vaccine approved for regular or emergency use by the United States Food and Drug Administration or the World Health Organization. This includes Pfizer, Moderna, Johnson & Johnson, AstraZeneca, and the Chinese vaccines Sinopharm and Sinovac. Mixing and pairing of approved shots will be permitted.

Quarantine officers from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) will verify on-site the compliance of passengers arriving in the United States, a Biden administration official told the Associated Press news agency.

Airlines that do not enforce the requirements could be subject to penalties of up to $ 35,000 per violation.

The Biden administration has not proposed a vaccination requirement for domestic travel, saying it would be impractical due to the large number of passengers who fly to the United States every day.

The pandemic and the resulting travel restrictions have caused international travel to plunge.

“Anyone who hopes for an explosion of inbound international visitors will be disappointed,” Henry Harteveldt, San Francisco travel industry analyst, told The Associated Press after the new rules were announced.

November 8 will mark the start of the recovery in international travel to the United States, he said, “but I don’t think we will see a full recovery until 2023 at the earliest.”



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