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.
Nikki Haley, the top Indian-American diplomat, said that she does not believe she needs to publicly detail the private conversations she has with the president but noted that she thinks Trump is receptive to them.
An 18-year-old Chennai-born girl has won this year's A*Star Talent Search award in Singapore for her study of genetic heart disease "hypertrophic cardiomyopathy".
Nisha Agarwal, 40, has been named as Senior Adviser to Deputy Mayor for Strategic Policy Initiatives Phil Thompson to advance the administration’s Democracy NYC initiative that is focused on expanding and protecting democracy for millions of New Yorkers.
Indian-American Deepa Ambekar has been appointed as interim judge to the civil court of New York City, becoming the second Indian-American woman judge in the city after Chennai-born Raja Rajeswari.
The officers first arrested Gurdip Samra's accomplice, Mark Lammin, after accosting him as he carried 10 kg of cocaine in a large holdall in Surrey, south-east England.
