Kenyan travellers will no longer be required to provide a Covid-19 vaccination certificate to enter the United States from next week after the world’s largest economy announced a phased reduction of its stringent Covid-19 prevention measures.
The White House, in a statement on Monday, said the country is in a different phase of the pandemic response when the measures are no longer necessary.
However, travellers are still required to test negative for the virus at the time of their entry into the country.
The directive is expected to ease the travel process for Kenyans to the US, where they currently require a vaccination certificate that meets the standards of the US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
The announcement comes at a time the US is witnessing a decline in the number of Covid-19 deaths, currently down by 95 percent with hospitalisations nearly 91 percent down.
“Today, we are announcing that the Administration will end the Covid-19 vaccine requirements for Federal employees, Federal contractors, and international air travellers at the end of the day on May 11, the same day that the Covid-19 public health emergency ends,” read the statement issued by the White House on May 1.
“In the coming days, further details related to ending these requirements will be provided… we are now in a different phase of our response when these measures are no longer necessary.”
The US administration has however said that it will provide further details related to ending these requirements.
The current US government entry measures for international travellers were put in place to slow the spread of new variants entering the country, and to allow its healthcare system time to effectively manage access to care if faced with an increase in cases and hospitalisations.
The rules require all travellers above the age of 12 years arriving into the country to show proof of either Covid-19 vaccination, or a negative PCR test conducted not more than 72 hours before departure.
The Covid-19 pandemic brought renewed travel restrictions across the globe in 2020 and 2021 as governments sought to reduce the incidences of new strains hitting their populations at a time when healthcare services were stretched to the limit by surging infection numbers.
For Kenyan travellers to the US, it meant delays in accessing visas as they waited to be vaccinated, while incoming numbers were also limited significantly by travel restrictions issued by other countries to areas where incidences of infections were high.
The restrictions on US visa issuances across the globe resulted in a huge backlog of applications, whose effect is still being felt today with the average waiting time for a visa interview in Nairobi for instance running up to January next year.
