The U.S. on Monday lifted travel restrictions on visitors from 33 countries, including Canada, Mexico, and European nations for the first time since the early days of the pandemic. This allows many people to reunite with spouses, grandparents, and family. All travels will have to show proof that they have been fully vaccinated, and have been approved by the U.S. regulators or World Health Organization. Visitors from anywhere but Canada and Mexico will have to conduct a negative coronavirus test to enter.

The U.S. travel and tourism industries were eagerly bracing for a “deluge” of travelers, and foreign nationals who have not seen the U.S. in nearly 20 months. People from green-lighted countries who were vaccinated with one of the shots and not approved by the U.S or World Health Organisation (WHO) had to stay back which caused some problems for Mexico. Many Mexicans have received vaccines that do not have WHO authorization like Sputnik V, developed in Russia, or the CanSino vaccine from China. President Andrés Manuel López Obrador said on Wednesday that “he would press the W.H.O. to authorize them soon.” This is less of an issue in Canada, where the WHO approved the AstraZeneca vaccine and was widely used. At a news conference on Wednesday, Mexico’s foreign minister, Marcelo Ebrard, said that “his country’s vaccine rollout played a role in the reopening.”