The Biden administration is reportedly developing a plan to require nearly all foreign travellers to the US to be fully vaccinated amid the global surge of Covid-19 variants.
An official with knowledge of the plan told Reuters on Wednesday that the White House was eager to reopen US borders to foreign visitors and was working “to have a new system ready for when we can reopen travel.”
The system would include “a phased approach that over time will mean, with limited exceptions, that foreign nationals traveling to the United States [from all countries] need to be fully vaccinated.”
NBC News and The New York Times later corroborated the report.
It remains unclear when the Biden administration intends to lift its pandemic travel restrictions.
Due to the coronavirus, the US has banned foreign visitors who have been in China, Brazil, India, Iran, Ireland, South Africa, the United Kingdom or 26 Schengen nations in Europe within the past 14 days.
Foreign travellers are also banned from crossing by land into the US from Mexico and Canada unless they are considered essential workers.
As The New York Times noted, Biden has been facing mounting pressure to lift some of these travel restrictions, particularly as the UK and Canada have eased their own restrictions for vaccinated Americans.