American airports will once again be able to accommodate vaccinated travelers (AFP / Patrick T. FALLON)
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The countdown is on for the reopening on Monday of the land and air borders of the United States to travelers vaccinated against Covid-19, after 20 months of restrictions particularly badly experienced in Europe or among neighbors Mexico and Canada.
Separated families, disrupted business relations, thwarted professional ambitions: the “travel ban” imposed by Donald Trump at the beginning of 2020, then confirmed by his successor Joe Biden, has been widely criticized and has become emblematic of the upheavals caused by the pandemic .
To protect himself from the countries most affected by Covid-19, Donald Trump had imposed restrictions on travel from China in February 2020. Then on March 13, it was the turn of the European countries in the Schengen area. Great Britain and Ireland followed a few days later, while the land borders with Mexico and Canada were largely closed.
With all these countries, the density of human and economic exchanges is immense.
“It was so hard,” “I just want to see my son,” said Alison Henry, a 63-year-old Briton who will fly to his home in New York on Monday.
Many families on both sides of the Atlantic are eagerly awaiting this reunion. It was certainly possible to go from the United States to Europe since last summer, but foreigners living on American soil and holding certain visas had no guarantee of being able to return home.
To cope with the influx of demands, airlines have increased the number of transatlantic flights. They will use bigger planes, because this lifting of restrictions also represents a breath of fresh air for a sector plunged into crisis by the pandemic.
US President Donald Trump announcing the closure of US borders to European travelers on March 11, 2020 at the White House (POOL / Doug Mills)
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Along the immense Mexican border, many American cities, in Texas or California, have suffered economically from this restriction on trade.
“The pandemic has affected everyone and we are just waiting for our people to come and visit us too,” Marcos Rivera, owner of a clothing store in El Paso, Texas, told AFP.
Sunny Butler, owner of an accessory store in the Texas town, displays his disbelief. “It’s been almost two years, you see? So when it opens on Monday, then I’ll see and really believe it,” she says.
More anecdotally, in the north of the continent, the rich Canadian retirees will be able without fear, at the time of the first frost, to undertake their annual transhumance by car towards Florida and its climatic delicacies.
– Vaccination and tests –
More than thirty countries are affected by the lifting of the “travel ban”. But entry will not be completely free and the American authorities intend to monitor the vaccination status of travelers, at the same time as they will continue to require negative Covid tests.
For travelers arriving by air, the United States will request from Monday, in addition to proof of vaccination and a test within three days before departure, the establishment by the airlines of a contact tracking system.
For the overland route, the restrictions will be lifted in two stages.
From Monday, people coming for reasons deemed non-essential, for example family or tourism, will be able to cross the border of Canada or Mexico, provided they are vaccinated. People coming for compelling reasons – for example truck drivers – will be exempt.
But from January, the vaccination obligation will apply to all visitors crossing land borders, regardless of their reason for entry.
US health officials have indicated that all vaccines approved by the World Health Organization (WHO) will be accepted.
For the moment, according to the WHO emergency procedure, these are the vaccines AstraZeneca, Johnson & Johnson, Moderna, Pfizer / BioNTech, the Indian Covaxin, Sinopharm and Sinovac. These two Chinese vaccines will therefore make it possible to cross the borders of the United States.
The American authorities have not yet commented on the rise in the number of cases in Europe, where the WHO is once again alarmed by the “very worrying” rate of transmission of Covid-19, which could lead to a half -million more dead on the continent by February.
This fourth “massive” wave hits Germany in particular, with which the Biden administration is particularly looking after its relationship.
The chief medical officer of the United States Vivek Murthy said he was “cautiously optimistic” Sunday on the ABC channel as to the evolution of the pandemic in the United States.
One thing is certain, after months of frustration, nothing will prevent Elisabeth Zours, 51-year-old administrative manager living in Berlin, from finally going to the United States to see her favorite group: the Rolling Stones.
“I have tickets for four concerts, first in Atlanta, then Detroit, Austin and Hollywood, Florida,” said Ms. Zours, who took plane tickets as soon as the border reopened mid-news was announced. October.
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