Fully vaccinated foreign visitors can enter US from Nov 8: White House

WASHINGTON: The United States announced on Friday that it will allow entry to foreign travelers who are fully vaccinated against Covid-19, by both land and air, starting November 8.

"This policy is guided by public health, stringent, and consistent," tweeted White House assistant press secretary Kevin Munoz in announcing the news.

In an effort to slow the spread of the coronavirus, US borders were closed after March 2020 to travelers from much of the globe, including the European Union, Britain and China, India and Brazil. Overland visitors from Mexico and Canada were also banned.

The months of restrictions led to both personal and economic suffering.

Under the new policy that was outlined last month, vaccinated air passengers will need to be tested within three days before travel, and airlines will be required to put in place a contact tracing system.

Earlier this week, a White House source said the land border opening would happen in two phases.

Initially, vaccines will be required for "non-essential" trips -- such as visiting family or tourism -- though unvaccinated travelers will still be allowed into the country for "essential" trips as they have been for the last year and a half.

A second phase beginning in early January 2022 will require all visitors to be fully vaccinated to enter the United States by land, no matter the reason for their trip.

Meanwhile, Sydney is scrapping mandatory quarantine for overseas travellers from next month, officials said on Friday, signalling a faster-than-expected end to tough coronavirus restrictions.

Australia’s borders have been closed for the last 19 months to prevent the spread of Covid-19, stranding tens of thousands of Australians overseas and leading critics to dub the country a "hermit state".

Currently, anyone who enters Australia has to qualify for an exemption to travel and fork out many thousands of dollars to be locked in a hotel room for 14 days. New South Wales Premier Dominic Perrottet said that, from November 1, fully vaccinated travellers to the state will have to test negative before getting on the plane, but would not have to quarantine at all on arrival.

"For double vaccinated people around the world, Sydney, New South Wales, is open for business," he said. "Hotel quarantine will be a thing of the past.

This is a significant day for our state."

Sydney’s 100-plus-day lockdown lifted last week and lingering rules are gradually being phased out.

Under a national post-pandemic road map, borders were to gradually reopen in November, with only Australians and permanent residents allowed in with mandatory home quarantine.

Perrottet’s comments indicate those restrictions will be scrapped faster than planned -- with tourists able to come to Australia too and quarantine requirements removed altogether.

The last 19 months have been devastating for Australia’s tourist industry, with visitor numbers down 98 percent since before the pandemic, according to Tourism Australia statistics.

The announcement also raises the prospect that Sydney residents will be allowed to visit Paris but not Perth, as Western Australia’s borders with the rest of the country remain closed.

Australians have been unable to travel internationally for more than 18 months without a government waiver, and thousands of citizens and permanent residents in other countries have been unable to return after Canberra imposed a strict cap on arrivals to slow the spread of Covid-19.

Many of these are now expected to return via Sydney, even though some Covid-19 free states in Australia have closed their borders to New South Wales.

Qantas Airways said it would bring forward the restart of international flights from Sydney to London and Los Angeles by two weeks to Nov 1 and would consider bringing forward some other destinations that had been expected to start in December.

Major airlines like Singapore Airlines, Emirates and United Airlines have continued to fly to Sydney throughout the pandemic but due to strict passenger caps, most of their revenue has been from cargo.