washington us president joe biden on monday signed an order imposing new vaccine requirements for most foreign national air travelers and lifting severe travel restrictions on china india and much of europe effective november 8 the white house saidthe extraordinary us travel restrictions were first imposed in early 2020 to address the spread of covid19 the rules bar most nonus citizens who within the last 14 days have been in britain the 26 schengen countries in europe without border controls ireland china india south africa iran and brazilit is in the interests of the united states to move away from the countrybycountry restrictions previously applied during the covid19 pandemic and to adopt an air travel policy that relies primarily on vaccination to advance the safe resumption of international air travel to the united states bidens proclamation saysthe white house confirmed that children under 18 are exempt from the new vaccine requirements as are people with some medical issues nontourist travelers from nearly 50 countries with nationwide vaccination rates of less than 10 will also be eligible for exemption from the rules those receiving an exemption will generally need to be vaccinated within 60 days after arriving in the united statesthose countries include nigeria egypt algeria armenia myanmar iraq nicaragua senegal uganda libya ethiopia zambia congo kenya yemen haiti chad and madagascarthe white house first disclosed on september 20 it would remove restrictions in early november for fully vaccinated air travelers from 33 countriesfamilies and friends can see each other again tourists can visit our amazing landmarks this policy will further boost economic recovery state department spokesman ned price saidthe biden administration also detailed requirements airlines must follow to confirm foreign travelers have been vaccinated before boarding usbound flightsone concern among us officials and airlines is making sure foreign travelers are aware of the new vaccine rules that will take effect in just two weeks as well unvaccinated americans who will face stricter testing rulesthe us centers for disease control and prevention cdc issued on monday new contact tracing rules requiring airlines to collect information from international air passengers like phone numbers email and us addresses and retain it for 30 days in case it needed to follow up with travelers who have been exposed to covid19 variants or other pathogensthe cdc said this month it would accept any vaccine authorized for use by us regulators or the world health organization and will accept mixeddose coronavirus vaccines from travelersthat list leaves off the sputnik vaccine that has been used by latin american countries extensivelyin mexico the government has said it plans to use its 24 million doses of sputnik to inoculate nearly 9 of the population a biden administration official said monday that some other major vaccines are going to be under review as the data on performance of those vaccines becomes available in a regulatory processthe transportation security administration plans to issue a security directive that provides the legal basis for airlines implementing the vaccine requirements the attestation form notes