washington the us lifted restrictions monday on travel from a long list of countries including mexico canada and most of europe allowing tourists to make longdelayed trips and family members to reconnect with loved ones after more than a year and a half apart because of the pandemic starting monday the us is accepting fully vaccinated travellers at airports and land borders doing away with a covid19 restriction that dates back to the trump administration the new rules allow air travel from previously restricted countries as long as the traveller has proof of vaccination and a negative covid19 test land travel from mexico and canada will require proof of vaccination but no test airlines are expecting more travellers from europe and elsewhere data from travel and analytics firm cirium showed airlines are increasing flights between the united kingdom and the us by 21 this month over last month the change will have a profound effect on the borders with mexico and canada where travelling back and forth was a way of life until the pandemic hit and the us shut down nonessential travel malls restaurants and main street shops in us border towns have been devastated by the lack of visitors from mexico on the boundary with canada crossborder hockey rivalries were community traditions until being upended by the pandemic churches that had members on both sides of the border are hoping to welcome parishioners they havent seen during covid19 shutdown loved ones have missed holidays birthdays and funerals while nonessential air travel was barred and they are now eager to reconnect river robinsons american partner wasnt able to be in canada for the birth of their baby boy 17 months ago because of pandemicrelated border closures she was thrilled to hear the us is reopening its land crossings to vaccinated travellers im planning to take my baby down for the american thanksgiving said robinson who lives in st thomas ontario if all goes smoothly at the border ill plan on taking him down as much as i can is crazy to think he has a whole other side of the family he hasnt even met yet according to the centres for disease control and prevention the us will accept travellers who have been fully vaccinated with any of the vaccines approved for emergency use by the world health organisation not just those in use in the us that means that the astrazeneca vaccine widely used in canada will be accepted for air travellers the airlines are required to verify vaccine records and match them against id and if they dont they could face fines of up to nearly 35000 per violation airlines will also collect information about passengers for contact tracing efforts there will be cdc workers spotchecking travellers for compliance in the us at land borders customs and border protection agents will check vaccine proof the moves come as the us has seen its covid19 outlook improve dramatically in recent weeks since the summer delta surge that pushed