US to accept all WHO-approved Covid-19 vaccines

WASHINGTON/MONTEVIDEO: The US will accept the use by international visitors of Covid-19 vaccines authorised by US regulators or the World Health Organization, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said on Friday.

On September 20, the White House announced the US in November would lift travel restrictions on air travellers from 33 countries including China, India, Brazil and most of Europe who are fully vaccinated against Covid-19. It did not specify then which vaccines would be accepted. A CDC spokeswoman told Reuters on Friday, “Six vaccines that are FDA authorised/ approved or listed for emergency use by WHO will meet the criteria for travel to the US.”

Late on Friday, the CDC said that “earlier this week, to help them prepare their systems we informed airlines” of the vaccines that would be accepted and added “CDC will release additional guidance and information as the travel requirements are finalised.”

The US will admit fully vaccinated air travellers from the 26 so-called Schengen countries in Europe as well as Britain, Ireland, China, India, South Africa, Iran and Brazil. The unprecedented US restrictions have barred most non-US citizens who were in those countries within the past 14 days.

Latin America’s death toll crosses 1.5mn

Latin America’s death toll from Covid-19 surpassed 1.5 million Friday, according to an AFP tally drawn from official figures.

The toll is at least 1,500,350 deaths, with more than 45 million cases of the virus recorded.

Brazil in particular surpassed 600,000 deaths on Friday, the second hardest hit country after the US. After Brazil come Mexico, Peru, Colombia and Argentina in terms of deaths.

Peru has the highest per capita Covid toll, at 605 fatalities per 100,00 inhabitants. Globally the pandemic has now claimed more than 4.8 million lives, with more than 237 million cases of the disease reported.