President Joe Biden has extended a U.S. government requirement that all non-citizen travelers to the country must be vaccinated for COVID-19 until April 10, 2023.
MORE - The U.S. is one of the few countries in the world that still requires non-citizens to be vaccinated against COVID upon international entry. pic.twitter.com/D0synwiwDZ
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The COVID-19 vaccine fails to prevent transmission or spread of the virus. For a year the policy has been deemed cruel and one that keeps family members apart. The requirement also prevented world class athlete Novak Djokovic from competing in the U.S. Open this year.
Novak Djokovic officially withdrew from the U.S. Open on Thursday after deciding not to get vaccinated against COVID-19.
Since Djokovic won Wimbledon last month, it has been known his appearance at the U.S. Open, which will begin Monday, was in serious doubt. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has not wavered from its policy that unvaccinated non-American citizens are banned from coming to the United States. Djokovic had given no indication he’d get a shot.
“Sadly, I will not be able to travel to NY this time for US Open,” Djokovic wrote in a statement on Twitter. “Thank you #NoleFam for your messages of love and support. Good luck to my fellow players! I’ll keep in good shape and positive spirit and wait for an opportunity to compete again. See you soon tennis world!”
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The move comes shortly after the CDC announced new testing requirements for travelers entering the country from China, where cases are allegedly on the rise.
"CDC is announcing today that it will implement a requirement for a negative COVID-19 test or documentation of recovery for air passengers boarding flights to the United States originating from the People’s Republic of China (PRC) and the Special Administrative Regions of Hong Kong and Macau," the CDC released in a statement last week. "CDC is announcing this step to slow the spread of COVID-19 in the United States during the surge in COVID-19 cases in the PRC given the lack of adequate and transparent epidemiological and viral genomic sequence data being reported from the PRC. These data are critical to monitor the case surge effectively and decrease the chance for entry of a novel variant of concern. CDC will continue to monitor the situation and adjust our approach as necessary."
The testing requirement goes into effect on January 5, 2023.
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