The United States has announced that it will be ending its public health emergency related to the Covid-19 pandemic this month.
As part of the end of the emergency, the country will also be ending its Covid vaccine mandates for international travellers.
While air passengers from South Africa have not needed to get tested and show a negative Covid-19 test result before boarding a flight to the US since 2022, the vaccine mandate has remained in effect.
Under the mandate, all non-US citizens and non-residents have to show proof of being fully vaccinated against Covid-19 before entering the US from a foreign country.
From 12 May 2023, this will no longer be the case.
“Today, we are announcing that the Biden Administration will end the Covid-19 vaccine requirements for Federal employees, Federal contractors, and international air travellers at the end of the day on May 11,” The White House said.
Since January 2021, Covid-19 deaths in the US have declined by 95%, and hospitalisations are down nearly 91%.
Globally, the administration said that Covid-19 deaths are at their lowest levels since the start of the pandemic.
“Following a whole-of-government effort that led to a record number of nearly 270 million Americans receiving at least one shot of the Covid-19 vaccine, we are in a different phase of our response to Covid-19 than we were when many of these requirements were put into place.”
South Africa ended its national state of disaster over the Covid-19 pandemic in April 2022, although the vaccine mandates for international travellers entering the country remained in effect.
However the country has since dropped all of its Covid-19 restrictions, including the requirement for travellers to show proof that they’re fully vaccinated against Covid-19, or provide proof of a negative Covid-19 (PCR) test.
Vaccine mandates have been and remain a contentious issue around the world.
While the vaccine rollout in many countries was successful, locally, only around half the adult
Around 9.5 million single-dose Johnson & Johnson shots were delivered, and 29.2 million two-dose Pfizer shots were given, not even covering half the population. Despite this, the country has enjoyed high levels of immunity.
With the US ending its vaccine mandates for international travel, the country will now again be open to travel for the millions of South Africans who opted to skip the vaccine shot.
Source: businesstech
