As of March 2020, no tourist can enter the United States.
On Wednesday, the White House finally offered a perspective to travelers from around the world wishing to go there: it plans to reopen the borders "eventually" to people fully vaccinated.
Washington is developing a "phased approach that would mean, with limited exceptions, that all foreign nationals coming to the United States, from all countries, must be fully immunized," a White House official said, without giving a schedule.
The working groups dedicated to this issue "are developing a policy in order to be ready, when the time is right, to move towards this new system".
The tone is very cautious, but this is a development for the United States, which, as of July 26, did not want to hear about tests or vaccines to reopen its borders.
At present, travelers from Europe, India, Brazil or China cannot enter the United States, except for specific compelling reasons.
Until now deaf to reciprocity
Washington had hitherto remained deaf to calls for reciprocity from Europeans.
While the countries of the European Union have decided to reopen their own borders to Americans, provided they are vaccinated against Covid-19 or present a negative test, travelers from the Schengen area, from the United Kingdom United and Ireland still cannot enter the United States.
Contrary to the reopening movement envisaged by Washington, Beijing has announced a tightening of restrictions on foreign travel for its nationals, as China faces a resumption of the epidemic on its soil.
In the United Kingdom, the government announced Wednesday the removal of the quarantine imposed on vaccinated travelers from mainland France, from Sunday, a measure that Paris denounced as "discriminatory".