To protect himself from the countries hardest hit by COVID-19, Trump swiftly imposed travel restrictions from China in February 2020.
Then, on March 13, it was the turn of the countries of Europe belonging to the Schengen area.
Britain and Ireland followed a few days later, while land borders were already largely closed with Mexico and Canada.
With all these countries, the density of human and economic exchanges is extremely intense.
“It was very difficult, I just want to see my son,” Alison Henry, a 63-year-old British woman who will fly on Monday to meet her son in New York after 20 months of separation, told AFP.
Since last summer it was possible to travel from the United States to Europe, but foreigners who settled in the United States and possessed certain visas had no guarantee of being able to return home.
To cope with the foreseeable increase in demand, airlines have increased the number of transatlantic flights and the size of the planes.
The lifting of restrictions also represents a breath of fresh air for an airline sector mired in crisis by the pandemic.
Also along the immense Mexican border, numerous American cities, in Texas or California, have suffered a strong economic shock and are anxiously awaiting a return to normalcy.
Wealthy Canadian retirees, for example, can now fearlessly, at the time of the first frost, undertake their annual transhumance by car to Florida and its climatic delights.
Vaccination and tests
More than thirty countries will be included in the lifting of this “travel ban”.
But entry will not be completely free and US authorities intend to closely monitor the vaccination status of travelers, while continuing to demand negative COVID tests.
For travelers arriving by air, the United States will request as of Monday, in addition to the vaccination certificate and a negative test within three days prior to departure, the establishment by the airlines of a contact tracking system .
For the land route, the restrictions will be lifted in two stages.
As of Monday, people who arrive in the country for reasons considered not essential, for example family or tourism, will be able to cross the border of Canada or Mexico as long as they are vaccinated.
Those who do so for compelling reasons, for example truck drivers, will be exempt from this requirement.
But as of January the vaccination obligation will apply to all visitors who cross land borders, regardless of the reason for their trip.
The US health authorities have also indicated that all vaccines approved by the World Health Organization (WHO) would be accepted.
At the moment, according to the emergency procedure established by the WHO, it is the AstraZeneca, Johnson & Johnson, Moderna, Pfizer / BioNTech, the Indian Covaxin, and the Chinese Sinopharm and Sinovac vaccines.
But while they are being opened for some, the borders will in fact be closed for many Latin Americans with less access to the vaccine in their countries and who until now traveled as tourists to the United States to get immunized.
As well as for those who have received vaccines that have not been approved by the WHO. Being unable to enter the United States for the time being those immunized with the Russian Sputnik V and the Chinese CanSino, which were applied in many Latin American countries, including Argentina and Mexico.
On the other hand, the WHO is once again alarmed by the “very worrying” transmission rate of COVID-19 in Europe, which could lead to an additional half a million deaths on the continent until February.
This fourth “massive” wave hits Germany especially hard, with which the Biden administration is especially careful in its dealings.
And in the United States, the authorities have not yet ruled on this situation.
In any event, Vivek Murthy, a senior spokesman for the US government on public health, was “cautiously optimistic” about the current evolution of the pandemic in his country on Sunday, speaking to the ABC channel.