On Sept. 20, the United States announced plans to ease restrictions on foreign travelers to the U.S. who have been fully vaccinated and who agree to submit to enhanced contact tracing on arrival. This is the first official step away from the various travel bans enacted earlier this year to prevent travelers from areas with significant COVID outbreaks from entering the United States.

Under these bans, most noncitizens are prohibited from entering the U.S. if they were physically present in a restricted country within the 14 days preceding their planned entry to the U.S. At the time this article was written, more than 30 countries were subject to such restrictions, including the United Kingdom and European Schengen area, in addition to Brazil, China, India and South Africa. The CDC maintains an active list of all countries affected by the U.S. travel bans, available at https://cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/travelers/from-other-countries.html.