COVID-19: Border Controls and Vaccine Passports
Border Controls
US now requires foreigners entering by land to be fully vaccinated
Norway reopens, dropping quarantine for all travelers
Antigua and Barbuda to lift vaccination requirement for incoming travelers
Ghana withdraws mandatory vaccination order for foreign seafarers
Vietnam to allow foreign arrivals without prior permission, except for tourists
Malaysia sets quarantine at 5, 7 and 10 days depending on vaccination status
Hong Kong to shorten quarantine for incoming travelers from 3 to 2 weeks
Kuwait reduces quarantine to 7 days for all arriving international travelers. Vaccinated travelers can end quarantine early with negative test result
Belgium to lift ban on non-essential international travel for its citizens
Vaccination and Travel
UK to remove all testing for eligible vaccinated arrivals from Feb 11
Switzerland drops pre-arrival tests for vaccinated or recovered
Netherlands scraps self-isolation for foreign arrivals with boosters
St Maarten waives testing for boosted travelers
Argentine removes testing for fully vaccinated returning nationals
Indonesia, Singapore to start quarantine-free travel bubble for fully vaccinated
Vaccination and Local Life
United States
Biden drops vaccine mandate for private employers after supreme court’s ruling
Federal judge in Texas blocks Biden’s vaccine mandate for federal workers
Wisconsin Assembly approves vaccine passport ban, immunity waiver
Army pauses enforcement of vaccine mandate for civilian workers
City of Reno drops employee vaccine mandate
City of Albuquerque pauses vaccine-or-test mandate for city workers
University of Virginia suspends vaccine mandate for employees
Starbucks is no longer enforcing a mandatory vaccine policy
Carhartt holds firm on employee vaccine mandate
Healthcare vaccine mandate deadline pushed in 24 states
New Jersey, New York, Connecticut, California, New Mexico require boosters for healthcare staff
Booster required on Maui to be considered fully vaccinated
Santa Clara county transit agency to require vaccines for workers
New Orleans prepares for school vaccine mandate for kids as young as 5
California bill would require all schoolchildren to be vaccinated
73 San Diego school workers terminated over vaccine mandate
Navy separates 23 more unvaccinated sailors
Alaska trucking companies employees quitting over Canada’s vaccine mandate
Hundreds of Michigan university students fined for missing weekly tests
Patient removed from heart transplant list for being unvaccinated
Canada
B.C. extends vaccine passport system through June 2022
More B.C. school districts require staff to be vaccinated
Some Ottawa medical experts call for three-dose vaccine passport
New Brunswick liberals push for immediate expansion of vaccine passports
Europe
Denmark to end virtually all measures including face masks on public transit and ‘vaccine passport’ to enter bars, restaurants and museums
UK vaccine mandate 'under review' as 77,000 NHS staff unvaccinated
Austria lifts lockdown for the unvaccinated but keeps health pass restrictions
France requires booster proof to enter public places
Belgium starts hearings on introducing general vaccination obligation
German parliament debates compulsory vaccination
Latvia cuts vaccination interval for small children from 3 months to 3-6 weeks
Businesses in Wales demand vaccine passport exemptions after government fails to provide evidence that the scheme prevents the spread of Covid-19
Asia
Saudi Arabia to require vaccinations boosters for entering public places
Goldman Sachs introduces compulsory vaccination for Hong Kong employees
Singapore shortens isolation for fully vaccinated patients to 7 days
India’s Kolkata offers 25% discount on unpaid property tax for those who can prove vaccination completion status of all family members
Australia and New Zealand
Victoria planning to require hospitality customers to be triple-vaccinated
Unvaccinated parents will be banned from seeing their sick kids in West Australian hospitals
Dozens of Corrections staff lose jobs over vaccine mandate in New Zealand
COVID-19 Domestic Stringency
Source: OurWorldInData
Vaccine Passports
Malta changes validity of vaccination certificates to 3 months, Austria to 6 months, booster to extend certificate validity by 9 months in both countries
Switzerland shortens vaccination certificates’ validity to 9 months
In Other News
Natural immunity more effective than vaccines against delta, study finds
Those who received Pfizer vaccine were 3 times more likely to experience carditis than unvaccinated patients, according to study
Pfizer CEO sees annual vaccine rather than frequent boosters