Biden Administration Lifts Travel 18-Month Long US Ban In Time For The Holidays.
by Heather Cassell
Starting in November, vaccinated travelers from around the world wanting to visit the United States will be able to President Joe Biden’s administration announced last week.
White House Covid-19 response coordinator Jeffrey “Jeff” D. Zients made the announcement September 20 ahead of Biden’s appearance at the United National General Assembly meeting in New York.
Travelers from the European Union, China, Brazil, India, Iran, South Africa are among the 33 countries overall who have been stopped from visiting family and friends or simply exploring the US for 18-months.
Many countries in attendance are frustrated with the US travel ban, especially Europe, which attended the international meeting.
The ongoing travel ban of Europeans to the US infuriated many leaders and people across the Atlantic who anticipated the America would reciprocate relaxing Covid-19 travel restrictions for summer travel. Europe relaxed travel restrictions for Americans traveling to the continent, reported the Washington Post.
Europe surpassed the US in Covid-19 vaccinations and transmission rates dropped for a while before surging again this summer. As of late September, about 60 percent of the population of the 27-nation bloc was fully vaccinated, compared with 53 percent in the US.
Biden’s administration has not given an explanation for continuing former President Donald Trump’s administration’s travel ban beyond it was “very complicated,” Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas recalled what European Union Home Commissioner Ylva Johansson told her, reported Axios.
Biden continued the travel ban shortly after taking office at the beginning of this year. European Union and United Kingdom officials lifted its travel bans on US travelers and other visitor after vaccines became widely available this spring.
The Trump administration’s travel ban attempted to keep Covid-19 from spreading, but ultimately failed.
Many questioned the travel bans lift’s timing given international pressure and UNGA Week in New York.
White House press secretary Jen Psaki continued to downplay the announcement’s timing before and during Biden’s UN visit, reported the Post.
“If we were going to make things much easier for ourselves, we would have done it prior to June, when the president has his first foreign trip, or earlier this summer,” Jen said adding later that the decision emerged from a working group with various agencies along with “a range of countries and partners.”
She nonchalantly said, “The older rules were not equitable in our view, and they were a bit confusing,” reported the Post.
Traveling In The Covid Era
Foreign travelers will have to be fully vaccinated. They will need to show proof of vaccination plus a negative Covid-19 test taken within 72-hours prior to traveling to the US, Jeff told reporters. Quarantine will not be necessary for vaccinated travelers upon arrival, but they will have to show proof of a negative Covid-19 test within three days of coming to the US, reported the Times.
The process for unvaccinated American travelers returning home from abroad will have to clear stricter testing requirements, Jeff said. Before flying back to the US unvaccinated Americans will have to prove they tested negative for Covid-19 one day before their flight and that they bought a Covid-19 test to take after arriving in America.
The New York Times reported the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention considers people fully inoculated two weeks after they receive the second dose of the Pfizer or Moderna vaccine, or the single dose of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine.
A CDC spokesman Thomas Skinner said in a September 20 statement that those who have received vaccines listed for emergency use by the World Health Organization, such as the AstraZeneca vaccine, would also be considered fully vaccinated.
US-bound travelers will soon have to complete a contact-tracing form for a forthcoming CDC order to airlines for a new contact-tracing system, reported the New York Times. The newspaper also reported travelers will be contacted by authorities after their arrival to check to see if they are experiencing any Covid-19 symptoms.
Seven US airlines said they would gather contact-tracing information from travelers coming to America in February, but at that time, it was voluntary for travelers to provide the information, reported the Post. The new policy would require airlines to gather the information.
“This new international travel system follows the science to keep Americans and international air travel safe,” Jeff said emphasizing the vaccination requirement and “additional strict safety protocols” will “protect Americans here at home and enhance the safety of international travel.”
The new rules only apply to air travel, not traveling across borders by land, Jeff added.
Raising Questions
Some questions remain unanswered at this point in time, such as vaccine passports.
Two days after the announcement, Apple announced Apple Wallet will soon allow users to digitally store their vaccination health records in their devices with the upcoming update to IOS 15, reported ABC7 News.
The update will allow users to download and store verifiable health records in the Health app, including their COVID-19 vaccination status and test results.
“The process and means for travelers to demonstrate vaccination status will be released by early November when this plan begins to be implemented,” White House spokesman Kevin Munoz told the Washington Post in an email last week.
The Post reported the Biden administration has been reluctant to create a national system of vaccine verification. Former President Donald Trump politicized the virus making any move to control or not control the virus politically controversial rather than a public health issue. A national system would give conservatives ammunition to complain about “government heavy-handedness,” reported the Post.
Will a similar system for international travel to the US be implemented for travel within the US?
Democratic California Senator Dianne Feinstein introduced a bill that would implement a similar Covid-19 tracing system and other requirements for American’s traveling within in the US on September 29. Democratic aides are split on implementing a similar Covid-19 system for Americans traveling within he US, according to the Post.
Path To US Tourism’s Revival
British and European leaders welcomed the US living the travel ban, reported the Post.
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said he was “delighted” by the news, stating it was a “fantastic boost for business and trade, and great that family and friends on both sides of the pond can be reunited once again.”
Margaritis Schinas, another high-ranking EU official, called the new policy “sound and long-awaited.”
White House Covid-19 response coordinator Jeff expressed the importance of international travel to the US.
“International travel is critical to connecting families and friends, to fueling small and large businesses, to promoting the open exchange of ideas and culture,” said Jeff.
“That’s why, with science and public health as our guide, we have developed a new international air travel system that both enhances the safety of Americans here at home and enhances the safety of international air travel.”
Lifting the ban will help rejuvenate the US tourism industry crippled by the pandemic. The US travel industry suffered a hard blow in 2020. The industry lost $500 billion in travel expenditures last year, according to the US Travel Association, which promotes travel to and within the US. The association reported the US travel industry suffered a 79% decrease in spending from international travel last year.
Travel industry experts applauded the Biden administration’s lifting travel restrictions for vaccinated travelers.
The lack of tourists wiped out 89,000 jobs and resulted in a loss of more than $60 billion in revenue in New York City alone, the state comptroller found, reported the Times.
The lack of tourists wiped out 89,000 jobs and resulted in a loss of more than $60 billion in revenue in New York City alone, the state comptroller found, reported the Times.
“Everyone says New York is back, New York is back, but it’s not really back until tourists are back from all countries,” Leyla Saleh, 28, a pastry chef whose father was forced to shut down his gift shop in Midtown Manhattan last year because he did not have enough business told the Times.
″U.S. airlines have been strong advocates for a stringent, consistent policy and are eager to safely reunite the countless families, friends and colleagues who have not seen each other in nearly two years, if not longer,” Nicholas Calio, president of Airlines for America, the lobbying group for the largest US carriers, said in a statement to CNBC.
US Travel Association President Roger Dow praised the Biden administration calling the move a “major turning point in the management of the virus.”
The administration’s “road map to reopen air travel to vaccinated individuals from around the world” will “help revive the American economy and protect public health,” he said in a September 20 statement from the association.
He added it “will accelerate the recovery of the millions of travel-related jobs that have been lost due to international travel restrictions.”
Willie Walsh, the director general of the International Air Transport Association, a trade group of the world’s airlines, also praised the move, but he cautioned there is still much to resolve, he told the Times. He noted the new rules also prohibit travel for unvaccinated individuals from across the world.
Unvaccinated travelers will soon be banned from entering the US, reported the Times. The ban will include countries, including Mexico, Canada, and Japan, that have not been restricted by the American travel ban during the global pandemic.
Willie said it is “critical that governments accelerate the global rollout of vaccines and agree on a global framework for travel where testing resources are focused on unvaccinated travelers.
“We must get back to a situation where the freedom to travel is available to all,” he said.
Book your next vacation with Girls That Roam Travel. Contact Heather Cassell at Girls That Roam Travel at 415-517-7239 or at .
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