Children under 18 won’t need vaccinations to enter US under Biden’s new travel restrictions

Non-vaccinated citizens from 50 countries will be allowed into the US from November 8, despite Biden requiring nearly all other international travelers to be forcibly shut down.

Countries where less than 10 percent of people are vaccinated ‘due to lack of availability’ will be allowed to enter the US without a jab.

However, they will still be required to submit proof of a negative COVID test. They will need a ‘compelling reason’ to come and will not be eligible for a normal tourist visa. The list of 50 countries has not yet been released by the White House.

Children below the age of 18 years will also be fully exempted from vaccination.

Biden announced in September that he was lifting travel restrictions in the US on countries such as the UK and then stipulated that visitors should be vaccinated.

Approved vaccines are Pfizer BioNTech, Moderna, Janssen/Johnson & Johnson, Oxford/AstraZeneca, SinoPharm and Sinovac.

The ban has been in place since the Trump administration at the start of the pandemic.

The administration is making the new policy outline available after it was announced weeks ago, as it tries to fight the delta version and keep positive numbers in the US down.

“Preventing people getting sick, getting hospitalized and dying of Covid is the top priority,” a senior administration official said on a media call.

“We are doing everything we can to encourage that process, which minimizes the amount of the virus,” said the official, who was referred to the ground rules of the call put in place by the administration. cannot be identified by name.

The administration characterized ‘very limited exceptions’ to the policy, including one in 50 countries that would be very limited.

An administration official said, “These have been made to be narrow. Children under two years of age do not need vaccination.

Children do not need to be vaccinated, although their parents are – with many exceptions.

Fully vaccinated passengers will have to show a negative Covid test ‘regardless of citizenship’.

For vaccinated Americans, the test window will be three days before travel. For unvaccinated air travelers, including US citizens and green card holders, the new rules will require a test the day before departure.

Air travelers must submit valid contact information to the airlines, which will collect it in case contact tracing is required in the event of exposure. Airlines are also charged with verifying vaccine status documents, which they have to do by verifying date of birth information.

It was not clear whether they would be responsible for verifying the validity of the vaccine in any other way.

The White House announced in September that the US would lift travel restrictions on air travelers from 33 countries. These included China, Brazil, India and European countries.