United States to reopen land and air borders to travelers vaccinated against Covid-19 this Monday (8), ending 20 months of severe restrictions criticized by Europe and neighboring Mexico and Canada.
Separated families, broken business relationships, frustrated professional ambitions: the “travel ban” imposed in early 2020 by then-President Donald Trump, and later confirmed by his successor Joe Biden, worsened the upheavals caused by the pandemic.
In order to avoid contact between Americans and citizens of the countries most affected by Covid-19, Trump imposed travel restrictions from China as early as February 2020.
Then, on March 13, he extended the restrictions to European countries belonging to the Schengen area.
The UK and Ireland entered the restriction list days later, when land borders with Mexico and Canada were all but closed.
With all these countries, the density of human and economic exchanges is very high.
“It was very difficult. I just want to see my son,” Alison Henry, a 63-year-old Briton who will travel to New York on Monday (8) told AFP after 20 months of separation.
Since last summer, it was possible to travel from the United States to Europe, but foreigners who had settled in the United States and held certain visas were not guaranteed to be able to return home.
To meet the foreseeable increase in demand, airlines have increased the number of transatlantic flights and the size of aircraft.
The lifting of restrictions also represents a respite for the aviation sector, in crisis due to the pandemic.
Still along the immense Mexican border, countless American cities, in Texas or California, have suffered a severe economic shock and are eagerly awaiting a return to normalcy.
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Wealthy Canadian retirees, for example, can now safely, at the time of the first frosts, embark on their annual road trip to Florida and its climatic delights.
Vaccination and testing
More than 30 countries will be affected by the lifting of this “travel ban”.
For travelers arriving by plane, the United States will ask, from Monday, in addition to the vaccination certificate and the negative Covid test, carried out three days before departure, the establishment by the airlines of a system contact follow-up.
For the overland route, the restrictions will be lifted in two stages.
As of Monday, people who arrive in the country for reasons deemed non-essential, such as family or tourism, will be able to cross the borders of Canada or Mexico as long as they are vaccinated.
Travelers who do so for compelling reasons – for example, truck drivers – will be free to comply with this requirement.
But from January, the vaccination obligation will apply to anyone crossing land borders, whatever the reason for the trip.
U.S. health officials have also said that all vaccines approved by the World Health Organization (WHO) will be accepted.
On the other hand, the WHO is once again alarmed by the “very worrying” rate of transmission of Covid-19 in Europe, which could cause another half a million deaths on the continent by February.
This fourth wave mainly affects Germany, a country with which the Biden government is particularly cautious in its negotiations.
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