The United States announced a new international air travel system Monday, opening travel for all vaccinated foreign nationals in early November, including those currently impacted by the U.S. travel ban.
“Most importantly, foreign nationals flying to the U.S. will be required to be fully vaccinated,” said White House COVID-19 Response Coordinator Jeff Zients.
Travelers will need to show proof of vaccination prior to boarding U.S.-bound planes. A COVID-19 test will also continue to be required within three days of departure and proof of negative results must be shown. Enhanced contact tracing and masking will also be required, but there will be no quarantine mandate.
The U.S. ban on nonessential travel has been in place since early 2020, starting with China and then expanding to visitors from Iran, the United Kingdom, the Republic of Ireland, the 29 regions in the European Schengen region, Brazil, South Africa and India.
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European Union Ambassador to the U.S. Stavros Lambrinidis hinted at the decision earlier Monday, tweeting: “Together with my EU Member State colleagues, we have been working diligently to lift the #travelban on Europeans. Hope there’ll be a positive announcement soon.”
The U.S. has been among the slowest countries to lift its travel restrictions. While Canada reopened its land borders to U.S. travelers in early August, the U.S. announced later that month that its land borders would remain closed to tourists. And even as European countries eased travel restrictions on U.S. travelers in the early summer months, the U.S.’s travel ban held fast.
In mid-July, as the country was under mounting pressure from European capitals and travel industry leaders to lift the travel ban, President Joe Biden said his response team was reviewing the travel restrictions and suggested changes would be announced in the coming days. White House press secretary Jen Psaki noted later that month that there were “ongoing working groups” focused on how to reopen international travel into the U.S.
But as COVID-19 cases began to spike once again, the administration pivoted and announced that travel restrictions would remain in place.
“Given where we are today … with the delta variant, we will maintain existing travel restrictions at this point for a few reasons,” Psaki said at a press briefing in late July.
The U.S. has already reported more COVID-19 deaths in September than in all of August, with deaths now averaging nearly 2,000 per day, according to USA TODAY analysis of Johns Hopkins data.
In recent months, countries in the U.S. travel ban – including Italy, France, Spain and Sweden – have tightened entry requirements for travelers from the U.S. due to rising COVID-19 cases. Quarantine mandates, vaccine requirements and outright bans are some of the restrictions international U.S. travelers now face.
► International travel bans: How COVID-19 travel restrictions have impacted families and couples
Critics and health experts have also questioned the effectiveness of the travel bans, especially after the U.S. took on its fourth surge of COVID-19 with the mandates in place.
“Given the high rates of vaccination on both sides of the Atlantic, it is possible to begin safely welcoming back vaccinated visitors from these crucial inbound markets,” U.S. Travel Association Executive Vice President of Public Affairs and Policy Tori Emerson Barnes said in a July statement urging the Biden administration to reopen international travel to vaccinated tourists.
Follow USA TODAY reporter Bailey Schulz on Twitter: @bailey_schulz.
