U.S. Eases Travel Restrictions — Entry Requirements To Know

Starting tomorrow, November 8, 2021, the U.S. COVID-19 travel restrictions will be lifted for fully vaccinated international visitors. This travel restrictions applied to countries include China, Iran, European Schengen area, United Kingdom, Republic Ireland, Brazil, and South Africa.

What are the entry requirements?

· Fully vaccinated: you will need to get a COVID-19 viral test before you travel by air into the United States. The viral test must be conducted on a sample taken no more than 3 days before the flight’s departure from a foreign country;

· Not fully vaccinated: you will need to get a COVID-19 viral test before you travel by air into the United States. The viral test must be conducted on a sample taken no more than 1 days before the flight’s departure from a foreign country; or

· Recovered from COVID-19: you may travel with documentation of recovery from COVID-19. For an example, your positive COVID-19 viral test result on a sample taken no more than 90 days before the flight’s departure from a foreign country and a letter from a licensed healthcare provider or a public health official stating that you were cleared to travel.

***The above requirements apply to all air passengers two (2) years of age or older.

Who will be considered as fully vaccinated?

· 2 weeks (14 days) after your dose of an accepted single-dose vaccine

· 2 weeks (14 days) after your second dose of an accepted 2-dose series

· 2 weeks (14 days) after you received the full series of an accepted COVID-19 vaccine (not placebo) in a clinical trial

· 2 weeks (14 days) after you received the full series of a Novavax (or Covavax) COVID-19 vaccine (not placebo) in a phase 3 clinical trial

· 2 weeks (14 days) after you received 2 doses of any “mix-and-match” combination of accepted COVID-19 vaccines administered at least 17 days apart

What types of vaccines are acceptable?

Either WHO or FDA approved vaccines are acceptable. Currently acceptable vaccines include:

· Moderna mRNA-1273

· Pfizer/BioNTech BNT162b2

· Janssen (Johnson & Johnson) Ad26.COV2.S

· Oxford/AstraZeneca AZD1222

· Serum Institute of India Covishield (Oxford/AstraZeneca formulation)

· Bharat Biotech Covaxin

· Sinopharm (Beijing) BBIBP-CorV (Vero Cells)

· Sinovac CoronaVac

· With exception: Novavax or Covavax

What types of viral tests are acceptable?

Two types of viral tests are used: nucleic acid amplification tests (NAATs) and antigen tests. NAATs include but not limited to:

· Reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR)

· Reverse transcription loop-mediated isothermal amplification (RT-LAMP)

· Transcription-mediated amplification (TMA)

· Nicking enzyme amplification reaction (NEAR)

· Helicase-dependent amplification (HDA)

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