9/21/21 -Some U.S. Travel Restrictions Will Be Extended

The White House announced that some travel restrictions will be eased while others will be extended.

(CNN) - The United States plans to ease travel restrictions on all fully vaccinated foreign visitors starting in November, the White House said Monday, relaxing a patchwork of bans that had begun to cause fury in Europe and replacing them with more uniform requirements for inbound international air passengers.

The new rules will require all foreign nationals arriving in the United States to show proof of being fully vaccinated, the White House Covid-19 response coordinator Jeff Zients said. He said the new rules would take effect in early November, a timeline that will give agencies and airlines "time to prepare."

The lifting of blanket restrictions on travel to the United States from certain countries will come as welcome news to thousands of foreign nationals with families in the United States who have been kept apart for almost the entire pandemic.

In addition to requiring vaccination, the administration said it was taking other steps to mitigate spread of the virus in three other areas: testing, contact tracing and masking.

Fully vaccinated foreign nationals and American citizens returning to the United States from abroad will be required to take a pre-departure Covid-19 test within three days of their flight, and show proof of a negative result before boarding. Unvaccinated Americans returning to the US will be "subject to stricter testing requirements," Zients said, including a test within one day of departure and an additional test when they return.

The new guidance applies to all international travel. Zients said the White House would defer to the CDC on the definition of "fully vaccinated," including on which vaccines qualify. The AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine is not yet approved for emergency use in the US, but is widely used in Europe and the rest of the world.

The development will be greeted favorably by the travel industry, which had been lobbying the federal government to lift some of the rules preventing international tourism. Airlines, hotels and hospitality groups had all voiced support for allowing vaccinated tourists from abroad back into the United States.

Zients maintained that the administration is "not taking any measures off the table" when asked about the possibility of vaccine mandates for Americans traveling domestically.

Over the course of the past months, travel restrictions on people wishing to enter the United States had devolved into a major transatlantic rift. European leaders, frustrated at the apparent lack of progress, began taking their gripes public. They said the rules were damaging relations between Europe and the United States.

Europe opened its borders to Americans in June, but last month reversed course, removing the United States from a safe list of countries whose citizens are exempt from quarantine or testing requirements. Anger over a lack of reciprocation from the United States partly fueled the decision, European officials familiar with the matter said.

Meanwhile, U.S. travel restrictions at the Canadian border will be extended by another month.

This comes despite an announcement from the White House Monday to allow foreign travelers to fly into the U.S. if they are vaccinated and have a negative covid test. Travel restrictions would have ended Tuesday.

The extension closes the border to all but essential travel for both Canada and Mexico effective through Oct. 21.