US to relax travel curbs for vaccinated
Proof of jab and negative Covid-19 test taken within 3 days of travel must
The Biden administration is to announce yesterday that it will lift travel restrictions on November 8 for fully vaccinated individuals arriving in the US by air travel or by crossing land borders, according to a White House official.
The measures are the biggest changes to US travel policy since the early days of the Covid-19 pandemic, and replace a system that flatly barred most foreign nationals coming directly from certain places, including Europe, India, Brazil and China.
Foreign nationals will be able to travel to the US if they show proof of vaccination and a negative Covid-19 test taken within three days of travel. The policy change was announced in September, but the White House is announcing Friday the date when it will take effect.
The White House announced earlier this week it would lift
restrictions on fully vaccinated foreign nationals for non-essential travel at US land borders and ferry crossings with Canada and Mexico in early November. Land and ferry travellers will be required to present proof of vaccination to officials upon request.
UK lab suspended
Meanwhile, British health officials say 43,000 people in southwest England may have been wrongly told they don’t have the coronavirus because of problems at a private
laboratory. The UK Health Security Agency says a lab in Wolverhampton, central England has been suspended from processing the swabs after reports of false negatives.
The faulty results are among tests processed at the Immensa Health Clinic Lab between early September and this week. The issue was uncovered after some people who were positive for Covid-19 when they took rapid tests went on to show up as negative on more accurate PCR tests.