U.S. eases travel restrictions for vaccinated tourists

Jessica Smith joins Brian Sozzi and Emily McCormick to discuss what to expect as the U.S. moves forward with efforts to ease travel restrictions for vaccinated foreign visitors

Video transcript

EMILY MCCORMICK: Some breaking news on the COVID and travel-restrictions front. Just crossing the tape this morning, the White House saying that the United States plans to ease travel restrictions on visitors vaccinated against COVID-19 from countries, including the European Union and the United Kingdom, starting in November.

Yahoo Finance's own Jessica Smith joins us now. And, Jess, what's the latest on these developments, and what kind of vaccine proof will these visitors be required to show?

JESSICA SMITH: Yeah, Emily, the White House says that all international travelers who are fully vaccinated will be allowed to fly into the US if they show proof of vaccination before getting on the plane, and they have to show a negative COVID test that was taken within three days of departure. The CDC is going to figure out exactly what these vaccine requirements will look like, what vaccines count, what counts as fully vaccinated. The CDC is going to work on that. This is going to go into effect in early November, the White House says, to give agencies, to give airlines, and to give travelers time to prepare.

Now, unvaccinated US citizens who are coming back into the US will have to show proof of a negative COVID test within one day of departure, and then they'll also have to test again on arrival. The White House says they're also putting in place several other measures to try and make this international travel as safe as possible. They say they're going to have enhanced masking, contact tracing, and testing.

Again, as I mentioned, travelers are going to have to show that negative test as well as proof of vaccination before coming into the country. They are also going to require airlines to collect contact-tracing information from international travels. The White House says they'll be required to keep that for 30 days. Again, they're still working out what the details of this contact-tracing system would look like, but they are going to require airlines to collect things like phone numbers and email addresses.

But again, the big news here is that the White House is going to allow international travelers into the US as long as they are fully vaccinated. The White House says this does apply to all countries. So they're moving away from this country-based approach to looking at the individual vaccination status of people.