US considers requiring foreign visitors to be ‘fully vaccinated’
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The Biden administration is drawing up plans that will require all foreign nationals visiting the US to be “fully vaccinated” against Covid-19, according to a White House official.
The official cautioned that given the spread of the Delta variant, which has led to a jump in cases and hospitalisations in many US states, particularly among unvaccinated Americans, the government would “maintain existing travel restrictions at this point”.
Which vaccines would be recognised for foreign travellers was not specified. Oxford university and AstraZeneca have not yet applied for authorisation from the US Food and Drug Administration for their vaccine.
The comments, first reported by Reuters, came as the US confronts a surge in Covid cases and growing concerns about the rapid spread of the contagious Delta variant.
The US prohibits entry to most visitors from Europe’s Schengen travel area, the UK and Ireland, as well as China, Iran, Brazil, South Africa and India.
But the official added that Joe Biden’s administration was “united in wanting to reopen international travel in a safe and sustainable manner”, and that working groups with representatives from several government agencies were developing a plan for “consistent and safe international travel policy”.
The White House earlier this year assembled working groups to reassess international travel rules that included representatives from the state, transport and health and human services departments and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The Biden administration said this week that 70 per cent of US adults had received at least one dose of a Covid-19 vaccine, a milestone the White House had hoped to reach last month but was delayed by many Americans’ reluctance to receive the jab.
“If you’re unvaccinated, you are much more likely to, one, get Covid-19; two, get hospitalised; and three, die if you get it,” Biden said in remarks at the White House on Tuesday. “This is a tragedy. People are dying and will die who don’t have to die.”
The travel industry and business groups have for months pushed for relaxing restrictions on foreign travellers. The current regulations do not apply to US citizens, who can leave and return to the country freely.
The restrictions were put in place last year by Donald Trump’s administration during the onset of the pandemic. But they have remained in place even as vaccines have been rolled out on both sides of the Atlantic, and several European countries have opened their borders to vaccinated Americans. The UK this week lifted its requirement for double-jabbed visitors from the US to quarantine on arrival in Britain.
Angela Merkel, Germany’s chancellor, pressed Biden to lift the measures at a meeting at the White House last month. This week, Ursula von der Leyen, European Commission president, called for the ban to be scrapped, telling a German news outlet: “The epidemiological situation in the US and the EU today is very similar. We need to solve the problem as soon as possible and are in contact with our American friends. This must not drag on for weeks.”
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