Countries most affected by the new US entry restrictions.

(Trends Wide Español) — The United States will relax restrictions on vaccinated foreign visitors from November, although not all countries will be able to enjoy these benefits.

Under the new guidelines, a person is considered fully vaccinated when they have received full doses of vaccines approved or licensed for emergency use by the U.S. and those that are on the World Health Organization’s emergency clearance list. Health.

In summary, the valid vaccines to enter the US are:

• Pfizer/BioNtech
• AstraZeneca (plus the two produced under license in India and South Korea)
• Janssen (de Johnson & Johnson)
• Modern
• Sinopharm
• Sinovac-CoronaVac

What vaccines are valid to enter the US?

The decision of the United States to allow only foreigners fully vaccinated with drugs that are already authorized by the WHO to enter the country would leave out, at least for the moment, millions of Latin Americans who received the Russian vaccines Sputnik V, the Chinese CanSino , and the Cuban vaccines Abdala, Soberana 02, Soberana Plus, conceived as a booster dose for Soberana 02.

The Russian and Chinese vaccines have made their way into Latin America, and today Sputnik V is applied in Argentina, Bolivia, Honduras, Guatemala, Mexico, Nicaragua, Paraguay and Venezuela. The difference with the Chinese vaccines of Sinopharm and Sinovac-CoronaVac is that they do have the authorization of the WHO for emergency use.

The decision of several countries to begin purchasing the Sputnik V vaccine also came at a stage in which the United States established the priority of vaccination for Americans and not to share the vaccines produced there.

For his part, José Angel Portal Miranda, Minister of Public Health of Cuba, indicated that by October 12, 98.4% of the population eligible for vaccination had at least one dose and 63.7% the complete schedule. Cuba has vaccinated its population with its own Cuban vaccines, Abdala and Soberana 02, in addition to reinforcing the latter, Soberana Plus. None of these drugs have been authorized by the WHO, but the governments of Venezuela, Nicaragua, Iran and Vietnam have bought millions of doses of Cuban vaccines.

Here we tell you which vaccines have been contracted in different Latin American countries, according to data compiled by the Americas Society / Council of the Americas (AS / COA).

Depending on the vaccines purchased by each country and the regulations of the United States, there are citizens who do not have the possibility of entering the United States territory. In Venezuela and Guatemala none of the contracted vaccines have been authorized by the US Others, such as Mexico, Argentina, Chile, Honduras, Paraguay and Bolivia have a high percentage that have received vaccines that, at the moment, are not accepted in the United States nor have they been validated by the WHO.

However, it must be taken into account that in addition to the purchase agreements made by each country in Latin America, it is expected that by the end of 2021 they will have received a total of 280 million doses of vaccines through the WHO Covax mechanism.

For example, Guatemala received more than two million Pfizer / BioNTech and AstraZeneca-Oxford vaccines from Covax between March and October; while Venezuela began receiving just over three million Sinopharm and Sinovac-CoronaVac vaccines in September, according to data from the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO).

More Latin American countries are expected to receive vaccines through donations.

According to Carissa Etienne, PAHO director, although Latin America and the Caribbean are on track to reach the WHO goal of vaccinating 40% of its population by the end of the year, six countries, including Guatemala and Nicaragua, still they have not vaccinated 20%. According to PAHO, work is being done to speed up the delivery of vaccines purchased by Covax and donated.