In a surprise breakthrough which led airline stocks to leap yesterday, the US has announced it will open up again to travel in a few weeks’ time and ease its Covid-19 travel restrictions for vaccinated travellers.
From November, foreign travellers will be allowed to fly into the US provided they are fully vaccinated and undergo testing. The world’s foremost economy has added its weight to the principle of using vaccination status as a deciding factor in travel. Many airlines (including Qantas) have adopted the same stance, with IATA endorsement.
Airline chiefs in the US and Britain welcomed the new measures.
In a big switch, the US has decided to base admission on individual travellers, rather than on whole nationalities. Travellers will have to show proof of vaccination before flying, produce a negative Covid-19 test result within three days of travelling, and provide their contact information so tracing can be done if necessary. In return, they won’t have to quarantine. They will still need to meet existing criteria for entry to the US.
For Australians, a major issue to be ironed out is this: which vaccines will the US consider acceptable for entry? The US Centers for Disease Control (CDC, a major US health watchdog) currently approves only three vaccines, all of them US-manufactured. They are: Pfizer-BioNTec, Moderna and Johnson & Johnson/Janssen.
AstraZeneca, the vaccine administered to most people in Australia and Britain (as well as to many people in Europe, Scandinavia and elsewhere) was developed by a British-Swedish multinational pharmaceutical and biotechnology company. It is not yet authorised by the CDC. That may happen over the next month or so, but no guarantees.
AstraZeneca is a highly effective vaccine. (So is the original anti-Covid vaccine, Russia’s Sputnik V. But that doesn’t mean the US authorises those vaccines.)
The US is still working out whether people who have received the AstraZeneca vaccine will be allowed in under the new rules, according to the BBC, quoting a White House source.
America’s new policy, scheduled to take force in early November, will not apply to land borders. It will cover passengers flying in, and possibly those sailing in as well.
Australian travellers to the US face an extra hurdle because their government won’t currently let them out of the country.
Obviously, they will first need to be permitted to leave Australia if they want to visit the US. Australia’s exit restrictions are likely to ease later this year – if the vaccination rate reaches a sufficient level.
Written by Peter Needham
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