On Monday, airports in the United States were expected to be packed with people gathering.
They are with their significant other, parents, and friends from 33 countries who have been barred from direct entry into the US for more than a year and a half.
Luise Greve, 23, of Erlangen, Germany, was one of the passengers who bought the first flight to take them to their loved ones soon after the White House announced that the trip would be open to fully vaccinated visitors from earlier on November 8 to countries who are prohibited from visiting.
Beatrice Frattini, 24, who lives about an hour from Venice, also raised concerns that her reunion with her American fiancé would happen on Monday night in Washington, DC. The travel ban traumatized him, he said.
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A long breakup can put pressure on a relationship, says Julia Polvara, who lives near Milan.
Polvara, 30, travels to the US next Saturday, her first day out of work since the ban was lifted. Mr. Polvara met his “special friend,” as he called him, in December 2020 while visiting his sister in New York. They spent an intense week together.
She was scheduled to visit him in early March 2020, but then the Lombardy region, one of the parts of Europe hardest hit by the coronavirus, was put under lockdown, so he couldn’t even leave his city near the airport. As Italy relaxed its restrictions on Lombardy, the United States had banned most visitors from Europe.
Under the new rules, fully vaccinated passengers will be allowed to travel to the United States to provide proof of vaccination and test negative for coronavirus within three calendar days of travel. Grev last saw his girlfriend in March 2020 “600 days ago,” he says when he visited her in Sedalia, Missouri, for three weeks.
Source: The New York Times
