The Biden administration is developing a plan to require nearly all foreign visitors to the US to be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 as part of eventually lifting travel restrictions that bar much of the world from entering the US, a White House official told Reuters on Wednesday.
The White House wants to reopen travel, which would boost business for the airlines and tourism industry, but is not ready to immediately lift restrictions because of the rising COVID-19 case load and highly transmissible COVID-19 Delta variant, the official said.
The Biden administration has interagency working groups working “to have a new system ready for when we can reopen travel,” the official said, adding it includes “a phased approach that over time will mean, with limited exceptions, that foreign nationals traveling to the United States [from all countries] need to be fully vaccinated.”
The extraordinary US travel restrictions were first imposed on China in January 2020. Numerous other countries have been added, most recently India in May.
The official’s comments were the strongest signal to date that the White House sees a path to unwinding those restrictions.
In July, Reuters reported that the White House was considering requiring foreign visitors to be vaccinated as part of discussions on how to relax travel restrictions.
Some countries, including Canada and the UK, are relaxing or lifting restrictions for vaccinated Americans to travel.
The White House has held discussions with airlines and others about how it would implement a policy of requiring COVID-19 vaccines for foreign visitors.
The administration must also answer other questions including what proof it would accept of vaccination and if the US would accept vaccines that some countries are using but which have not yet been authorized by US regulators.
The US currently bars most non-US citizens who within the last 14 days have been in the UK, the 26 Schengen nations in Europe without border controls, Ireland, China, India, South Africa, Iran and Brazil.
Currently, the only foreign travelers allowed to cross by land into the US from Mexico and Canada are essential workers, such as truck drivers or nurses.
US President Joe Biden addresses a joint session of Congress in Washington, D.C. on April 28. Photo: Xinhua
