As rules ease, travellers head to US for emotional reunions

CHARLES DE GAULLE AIRPORT, France (AP) — The United States lifted restrictions Monday on travel from a long list of countries including Mexico, Canada and most of Europe, setting the stage for emotional reunions nearly two years in the making and providing a boost for the airline and tourism industries decimated by the pandemic.

Wives will hug husbands for the first time in months.

Grandmas will coo over grandsons who have doubled in age since they last saw them.

Aunts and uncles and cousins will snuggle babies they haven't met yet.

“I'm going to jump into his arms, kiss him, touch him,” Gaye Camara said of the husband in New York she has not seen since before COVID-19 brought the fly-here-there-and-everywhere world to a halt.

“Just talking about it makes me emotional,” Camara, 40, said as she wheeled her luggage through Paris' Charles de Gaulle airport, which could almost be mistaken for its pre-pandemic self, busy with humming crowds, albeit in face masks.

The rules that go into effect Monday allow air travel from a series of countries from which it has been restricted since the early days of the pandemic — as long as the traveller has proof of vaccination and a negative COVID-19 test.

Those crossing land borders from Mexico or Canada will require proof of vaccination but no test.

American citizens and permanent residents were always allowed to enter the US, but the travel bans grounded tourists, thwarted business travellers and often separated families.

The US will accept travellers who have been fully vaccinated with any of the shots approved for emergency use by the World Health Organization, not just those in use in the US.

That's a relief for many in Canada, where the AstraZeneca vaccine is widely used.

But millions of people around the world who were vaccinated with Russia's Sputnik V, China's CanSino or others not OK'd by the WHO won't be able to travel to the US.

The moves come as the US has seen its COVID-19 outlook improve dramatically in recent weeks since the summer delta surge that pushed hospitals to the brink in many locations.

Those in the travel industry hope it will provide a boost after COVID-19 travel bans brought the sector to its knees.

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