Jeff Zients, the White House Coronavirus Response Coordinator, has stated that the US is focusing on creating a system for overseas travel that will include contact tracing. According to SchengenVisaInfo.com, this means that the US authorities will have access to the Coronavirus and other personal data of travelers if they are exposed to the COVID-19 sickness during their journey.
Reuters reports that Zients informed the US Travel and Tourism Advisory Board that the Biden administration had no plans to relax travel restrictions. “We are exploring considering vaccination requirements for foreign nationals traveling to the United States,” Zients stated.
There has been no official word on when international visitors will be able to visit the United States. Moreover, it has been speculated that EU citizens may be barred from entering the United States until the midterm elections in 2022.
For nearly 17 months, the United States has kept its borders closed to international travelers in order to preserve public health and prevent the spread of COVID-19 and its variants. In 2020, the US Department of State issued four proclamations prohibiting all travelers from the Schengen Area, Ireland, the United Kingdom, Brazil, and South Africa from entering the country for an unknown period of time. Many people consider the United States’ choice to maintain limitations in place for travelers who have been properly vaccinated against the virus to be antiquated.
Daniel Mulhall, Ireland’s ambassador to the United States, and Stavros Lambrinidis, the European Union’s ambassador to the United States, have both stated that they expect the United States will relax the limitations and allow families to reunite. Furthermore, the US is under fire for refusing to admit vaccinated travelers, despite the fact that the US has considerably higher infection rates and lower vaccination rates than the EU countries.
Despite the fact that European governments have repeatedly lobbied the US government to lift the restriction on European countries, no action has been made. Unlike in 2019, the US has currently barred entrance for more than half of its top 20 most important markets worldwide in terms of inbound spending, resulting in a large drop in the US travel and tourism sector last year.
According to WHO data, the United States had identified 41,066,110 Coronavirus infection cases as of September 16. In the last 24 hours, the country has seen a total of 125,961 new cases. According to SchengenVisaInfo.com, the US economy is losing roughly $198 million per day as a result of the current entrance restrictions. Unlike in 2019, the US has currently prohibited entrance to more than half of the top 20 most important markets in terms of inbound spending.
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