US plans to require foreign visitors to be fully vaccinated

Washington, Aug 4 (EFE).- The United States plans to require almost all foreign visitors to be fully vaccinated, a White House official told news agencies on Wednesday.

The measure, first reported by Reuters, is part of a plan that interagency groups of the administration of President Joe Biden are working on with a view to eventually lifting current travel restrictions.

This will mean all foreign nationals traveling to the US need to be fully vaccinated, with limited exceptions.

The final plan has not been determined and there is no imminent change to current travel restrictions.

Currently, the restrictions affect the 26 European Schengen states, in addition to the United Kingdom, Ireland, Brazil, China, Iran, South Africa and India.

For travelers from these countries, entry is only permitted through a National Interest Exception, a special permit granted for specific humanitarian, economic, health or national security reasons.

On July 26, White House spokesperson Jen Psaki confirmed the intention of the Biden government to maintain current travel restrictions, given the increase in new infections of the Delta variant.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Delta mutation and its different subvariants were behind 93 percent of the cases sequenced in the US during the last two weeks of July, and in some areas it represented 98 percent.

In just one month, the US has gone from an average of fewer than 15,000 daily infections to the current 80,000 daily infections. EFE

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