Visitors to US still need COVID Vaccine; measure EXTENDED

By Dana Malcolm

Staff Writer

#USA, February 7, 2023 – As most countries in the world move on, the United States is holding fast to its COVID-19 vaccine mandate for entry but some say the vax mandate is not evenly applied at all the borders and is out of date to boot.

The vaccine mandate for entry was instituted in November 2021 as the globe faced what would be its largest and deadliest COVID-19 wave, fueled by the uber-transmissible Omicron. At that time the United States already had some of the highest case numbers and death tolls in the world and had only been requiring negative tests for entry.

The new vaccine mandate required all non-citizens to be fully vaccinated and show proof of that vaccination to enter the country by air. A similar rule for land and ferry passengers came into effect on January 22, 2022. Fully vaccinated then meant that an individual had two primary doses of the COVID-19 vaccine which was at the time targeted at strains which are no longer significantly circulating and immunity from which has been proven to wane without a booster within a period of months.

That definition of ‘Fully vaccinated’ remains in effect, this is despite the FDA now planning to vote on whether all vaccines should target the same variants, (the ones which are currently circulating most) and as the efficacy of the initial vaccines against the latest sub-variants have proven to be considerably low.

In addition to the definition of fully vaccinated which by the FDA and CDC’s admittance no longer provides significant protection against COVID-19 without a booster, some travellers say the rule is not enforced as sternly at land borders as it is by air.

That order was supposed to end on January 8th