Indians planning to undertake air-travel to the United States starting November 8 are required to be fully vaccinated under a new protocol released by the Biden administration on Monday for all incoming non-citizen and non-immigrant international travellers.

Children under-18 will be exempted as are participants in clinical trials, people with certain contraindications to the vaccine and those in need to travel in emergency or for humanitarian reason, which will have to be certified by the US government. They will still have to undergo tests for Covid-19, except children below 2.

The onus for implementing the new travel rules, which were announced earlier but are now been operationalised, will be on airlines bringing travellers to the United States, much in the same fashion as the mandatory testing requirement they have been enforcing.

“We’re taking an important step forward in operationalising this new system as it relates to international air travel by releasing a series of documents that will help airlines and travellers get ready for November 8 and ensure a smooth transition to the new system,” a senior Biden administration official said to reporters previewing the regulation.

The United States is a popular destination for international travellers for business, tourism, studies, medical and other reasons. It got nearly 80 million international visitors in 2019, the year before Covid-19 shut down international travel to and from the United States, barring exceptions episodically.

According to the latest data available 1.2 million Indians visited the US in 2017, which was 6.5% more than in 2016.

Travellers to the US are currently required to provide a current negative test result for Covid-19 before they are allowed to board the flight.

Under the new protocol, airlines will required travellers to furnish proof of vaccination issued by an official source – for example, the fact sheet said public health agency, government agency – in the country where the vaccine was given.

All travellers – US citizens, non-citizens, immigrants and non-immigrants – will also be required to produce a negative test for Covid-19, done in the past 24 hours. The airlines will only accept WHO-approved vaccines. “Individuals can be considered fully vaccinated ≥2 weeks (more than two weeks) after receipt of the last dose if they have received any single dose of an FDA approved/authorised or WHO EUL (emergency use listing) approved single-dose series (i.e., Janssen), or any combination of two doses of an FDA-approved/authorised or WHO emergency use listed Covid-19 two-dose series (i.e. mixing and matching),” the White House said.

WHO recognises 10 vaccines. One of them is the Serum Institute of India’s Covidshield, which is the widely administered Indian version of AstraZeneca’s vaccine that the US has not approved but pre-ordered million of doses for its stockpile.