have their documents checked, officials told the Times.
Importantly, President Biden will continue to use a separate border policy implemented early in the pandemic to turn away migrants seeking protection or economic opportunity, the Times said.
While travelers flying to the United States will need to show both proof of vaccination and a negative coronavirus test to enter the country, there will be no testing requirement for those crossing the land border, the Times noted.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention considers people fully vaccinated two weeks after they receive a second dose of the Pfizer or Moderna vaccines, or a single dose of Johnson & Johnson’s shot.
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Those who have received vaccines listed for emergency use by the World Health Organization, such as the one made by AstraZeneca, would also be considered fully vaccinated.
A standard one senior official said it would probably be applied to those crossing the land border, the Times reports. But officials added that the CDC was still discussing whether foreigners crossing from Canada or Mexico with two doses from different vaccines could enter.
The reopening of the United States comes not a moment too soon: Tourism spending dropped in the United States by nearly half, to about $600 billion in 2020 from a year earlier, according to the U.S. Travel Association, a trade group.
“Border communities have been hamstrung because of port closures,” Rep. Veronica Escobar, a Texas Democrat who represents a border district, told the Times. “Not only did we suffer more significant health devastation in 2020, but the economic devastation has been longer for us because of those port closures.”