Biden Administration Says Sputnik Vaccine Won’t Count for International Travelers Hoping to Visit America

The Biden administration has launched further particulars on its plan to require worldwide vacationers to prove that they have been vaccinated in opposition to COVID-19, issuing a presidential proclamation on Monday that outlines the method.

Based on senior administration officers, nearly all non-citizen guests touring to america by air after November 8 shall be required to supply proof of vaccination standing to airline officers previous to boarding a flight—though some vaccines, together with Russia’s Sputnik V vaccine and others that haven’t been permitted for emergency use by the World Well being Group, received’t qualify.

“Vaccines shall be accepted that embrace the FDA-approved or licensed vaccines, and the World Well being Group’s record of emergency use listings,” a senior administration official advised reporters in a briefing forward of the coverage’s announcement.

There shall be “very restricted exceptions” to the proof-of-vaccination requirement, the administration added, together with for youngsters beneath 18 years previous and vacationers coming from international locations with lower than a ten % whole vaccination fee attributable to a scarcity of vaccine availability. These vacationers, apart from kids beneath the age of two, will nonetheless be required to point out a damaging COVID-19 check to be able to journey—as will adults who’ve been vaccinated.

The Facilities for Illness Management and prevention will even require airways to maintain observe of “primary, legitimate contact data” for all worldwide vacationers, the official stated, for functions of contract tracing within the occasion of an outbreak.

The CDC can also be issuing a Contact Tracing Order that requires all airways flying into america to maintain available—and promptly flip over to the CDC, when wanted—contact data that may enable public well being officers to observe up with inbound air vacationers who’re doubtlessly contaminated or have been uncovered to somebody who’s contaminated.