US president Joe Biden has outlined new rules for foreign
travellers entering the country when its borders reopen on 8 November,
providing clarity on what will be needed for international travel.
The plan moves away from the White House’s previous ban on entries from most foreign countries, which was implemented by former president
Donald Trump in March 2020 and extended by Biden when he took office in January
this year.
In a proclamation signed by Biden on Monday, the US will now
move towards a system that requires most incoming visitors to be vaccinated
against Covid-19. Airlines operating flights into the country will be required
to check passengers’ vaccination status before they can board the plane. They
will also have to keep personal information for contact tracing on file for 30
days so health officials can follow up with anyone who may have been exposed to
the virus.
In order to prove their vaccination status, travellers must
provide evidence of a jab from an “official source” having been received at least
two weeks prior to departure. This includes any vaccines approved by US health
regulators.
Vaccinated travellers will also be required to have a
negative Covid-19 test result within three days of departure. The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said this must be "a viral test that could be either an antigen test or a nucleic acid amplification test (NAAT)" such as a PCR or LAMP test.
The Biden administration said exceptions for unvaccinated foreign
travellers would be rare but would be made for children under the age of 18 and
those arriving from countries with less than a 10 per cent vaccination rate due
to lack of availability, as well as those with medical conditions that prevent
them from receiving vaccines.
Unvaccinated travellers, whether foreign or American, will be
required to provide a negative Covid-19 result from a test taken within one day
of departure.
The proclamation states that unvaccinated travellers may be
subject to further restrictions and requirements subject to recommendations by
the CDC, including mask wearing and post-arrival
testing.
The new rules apply to all countries that were included in
the previous travel ban, including the UK, Republic of Ireland, the European
Schengen area (Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland,
France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Italy, Latvia, Liechtenstein,
Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal,
Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Monaco, San Marino and Vatican
City), China, India, Iran, Brazil and South Africa. Travellers arriving from
outside of these countries will face more stringent entry requirements,
according to the proclamation.