The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) announced this week that it will continue to require Covid-19 vaccinations for international travelers entering the United States via air travel, despite the expected end of the nation's public health emergency on May 11, when most pandemic measures are anticipated to be lifted.
In maintaining its Covid vaccine requirement for overseas arrivals, the US is among a small group of outliers, including Pakistan, Indonesia, Niger, Liberia, and Guinea-Bissau, which continue to enforce vaccination prerequisites for entry.
The CDC says the decision to maintain the vaccine mandate for international visitors is due to the ongoing risk the coronavirus poses to millions of Americans, particularly adults 65 and older and those with weakened immune systems.
In a recent development a week ago, the CDC recommended that eligible individuals receive another dose of the reformulated booster that debuted last fall, following the Food and Drug Administration's authorization of the booster plan.
The recommendation came after a daylong discussion by the CDC's expert advisors and signifies the final administrative step, enabling eligible Americans to receive booster doses immediately.
The revised travel guidance from the CDC slightly eases vaccine requirements for international visitors though. They will now be considered fully vaccinated two weeks after receiving a single dose of either the Pfizer or Moderna mRNA vaccine any time after August 16, 2022, when bivalent formulations became available. This change aligns with the agency's simplified vaccine guidance for Americans, which recognizes those who are unvaccinated as fully vaccinated after one dose of a bivalent vaccine.
Previously, foreign travelers had to wait two weeks after their second dose of a two-dose vaccine or two weeks after a single-shot vaccine, such as Johnson & Johnson, to be considered fully vaccinated.
Several older, monovalent vaccine regimens still qualify a foreign visitor as fully vaccinated, including a single dose of the Janssen, Johnson & Johnson, or Convidecia vaccines, and two doses of vaccines from Novavax, Pfizer, Moderna, AstraZeneca, Covaxin, Covidshield, BIBP, Sinopharm, CoronaVac, Nuvaxvoid, Covovax, or the experimental vaccine Medicago.
These travel requirements do not apply to US citizens, lawful permanent residents, or immigrants. T
he updated CDC guidelines also recommend that individuals aged six months and older in the United States receive updated vaccines, as older monovalent mRNA Covid-19 vaccines are no longer advised.
