US opens border to fully vaccinated int'l travellers
Darpan News Desk IANS, 09 Nov, 2021 11:50 AM
New York, Nov 9 (IANS) The US has opened it doors to fully vaccinated international travellers, welcoming the visitors who have been shut out of the country for about 20 months, which is seen as a relief for the tourism industry and for families separated by previous Covid-19 rules.
International flight arrivals are expected to rise 11 per cent on Monday over a similar day in October at Newark Liberty and John F. Kennedy international airports, with 253 flights scheduled to arrive, according to the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, Xinhua news agency reported.
Airline executives have said bookings have surged since the Joe Biden administration said it would lift the restrictions. "Shares of United Airlines, Delta Air Lines and American Airlines were each up more than 1 per cent in morning trading. Those carriers have the most international service of the U.S. airlines and stand to benefit from the resumption of US-bound travel," reported CNBC.
The ban, put in place by former US President Donald Trump in early 2020 and expanded by President Joe Biden early this year, prohibited visitors from 33 countries, including Britain, much of Europe, China, Brazil and South Africa.
Now, visitors can fly into the United States with proof of full COVID-19 vaccination. Documentation can be shown as a paper certificate, a photo of the document or a digitized version. There are exemptions for travellers under age 18 and passengers from countries with low vaccination availability.
Accepted vaccines are those approved or authorized by the Food and Drug Administration and those listed for use by the World Health Organization: Johnson & Johnson, Pfizer/BioNTech, Moderna, AstraZeneca, Covishield, Sinopharm and Sinovac.
The United States will also require proof of a negative Covid-19 test from within the past three days for all vaccinated travellers. The country has required that since January for all arrivals, including US citizens. If a traveller is not vaccinated, the Covid-19 test must have been taken from within one day of departure.
British MPs have called on the Home Office to intervene and stop Shreyas Royal from leaving the UK when his father's work visa expires in September. Royal's father is not eligible to stay in the UK because he does not earn more than £120,000 a year.
Anita Kumar has become the first Indian-American to be elected to the board of the White House Correspondents Association (WHCA), more than a century-old apex body of journalists covering the US president.
A US Navy veteran, who shot and killed Indian engineer Srinivas Kuchibhotla and injured two others at a suburban Kansas City bar in 2017, was on Tuesday sentenced to life without the possibility of parole.
Surjit Singh Malhi said he was putting out political signs for US Representative Jeff Denham, a Republican running for re-election, near his home in California when he was attacked by the two men who yelled racial slurs
Sri Preston Kulkarni, whose family traces its roots to Maharashtra and Karnataka, says on his website that he spent his career trying to reduce conflict in other countries..."but right now hostility and conflict are being inflamed in our own country through the politics of anger and demagoguery".
