Recently, the White House has announced that the US is allowing those foreign nationals to travel who have taken both necessary doses of vaccination. Highlighting what could very well be the beginning of the end of travel restrictions imposed last year due to the ongoing pandemic COVID19, the policy is guided by public health, strict and consistent, as told by a White House official.
US to India flights and return journeys are available for fully vaccinated passengers.
Here are the 10 pointers of the latest developments as announced lately by the White House.
- This policy was outlined already in early September. It was announced by the White House officials that the USA would lift restrictions on air travelers from 33 countries early November.
- The US is allowing fully vaccinated foreign air travellers from the 26 Schengen countries in Europe, including Germany, Italy, Switzerland, Spain, France and Greece along with Ireland, Britain, India, China, Iran, Brazil and South Africa.
- Technical and logistical details of this new policy have not been announced completely.
- According to the health authorities of the US, all vaccines approved by the Food and Drug Administration and the World Health Organization (WHO) are accepted for entry by air. The vaccines currently include Pfizer-BioNTech, Johnson & Johnson, AstraZeneca, Moderna, Sinovac and Sinopharm.
- People arriving by India to USA flights will be considered vaccinated by the US either if they have taken vaccines authorised by the Food and Drug Administration or have gotten an Emergency Use Listing from the World Health Organization.
- As a general rule, unvaccinated foreigners will be barred from entry and unvaccinated Americans will need to produce a negative COVID19 test result.
- This move is passed to provide immense relief to Indian citizens who were unable to take last-minute flights to India for the last one and a half years due to facing countless problems. Hence with this policy, Indians living in the USA can now travel back to India and return when it is possible for them, according to their convenience.
- Indian passengers will need to provide proof of vaccination and a recent negative COVID19 test before boarding the plane, and foreign visitors crossing a land border will not need to provide proof of a recent negative COVID19 test.
- This switch to a vaccination-based entry system gets the USA in accordance with the European Union, as it started using COVID- authorised apps at the beginning of this summer. The UK made the switch a few weeks ago.
- As announced earlier this week, the US is also opening the land borders along with Mexico and Canada on November 8th 2021.
