The United States opens its borders to vaccinated travelers this Monday, after 20 months of restrictions

The United States opens its borders to vaccinated travelers this Monday, after 20 months of restrictions

In order to prevent the spread of the virus, Trump was one of the first rulers to suspend travel from China, in February 2020, and a month later he did so for European countries and also closed his land borders with Mexico and Canada. .

These restrictions drastically reduced the intense human and economic exchanges with these countries.

Although since last summer it was possible to travel from the United States to Europe, foreigners who settled in the North American country and possessed certain visas had no guarantee of being able to return home.

This reopening encourages an aviation sector in crisis, which in order to face a foreseeable increase in demand increased the number of flights, as well as the size of the planes.

Also along the immense Mexican border, numerous neighboring cities have suffered a strong economic shock and are looking forward to a return to normalcy.

The reopening of borders includes more than 30 countries, although the US authorities intend to closely monitor the vaccination status of tourists and will continue to demand negative tests for Covid-19.

The accepted vaccines will be those approved by the World Health Organization (WHO), that is, those developed by AstraZeneca, Johnson & Johnson, Moderna, Pfizer / BioNTech, the Indian Covaxin and the Chinese Sinopharm and Sinovac.

At the moment, the Russian Sputnik V and the Chinese CanSino, applied in many Latin American countries, are not contemplated.

For air travelers, the country will require from tomorrow the vaccination certificate and a negative test of at least 72 hours, while the airlines will have to establish a contact tracking system.

In the case of income from the land route, the restrictions will be lifted in two stages.

From tomorrow, people who travel for reasons considered not essential, such as family members or tourists, will be able to enter the country as long as they are vaccinated, while those who do so for compelling reasons, such as truck drivers, will be exempt from this requirement.

However, from January the vaccination obligation will apply to all visitors who cross land borders, regardless of the reason for their trip.

Meanwhile, internally, the US government suffered a setback in its management of the health crisis yesterday, after a federal appeals court suspended the obligation to vaccinate against Covid-19 employees of companies with more than 100 people, while examining possible “serious constitutional problems.”

The measure, announced by Biden in September and adopted this week, required tens of millions of employees to be immunized by January 4 or undergo weekly testing since then and provided for fines of nearly $ 14,000 for each violation case for firms that did not comply.

Despite the judicial decision, the Government today defended the legality of the initiative and affirmed that it will fight a legal battle for it to be applied.

“We are confident that this measure” complies “with the law and regulations.”Cedric Richmond, a close adviser to the president, told CBS, according to the AFP news agency.

“Being president is not making easy decisions, it is making fair decisions and having the courage to implement them,” he added, while highlighting that “the option of a weekly test” was offered to those who rejected the vaccine.

“The carnage that is underway”, with more than 750,000 deaths from the pandemic in the United States, “is unacceptable”, and “vaccines are the best way to fight it,” he concluded.

Source From: Ambito

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