CDC eases COVID vaccination rule on international travelers as expiration looms

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention moved Thursday to formally loosen its COVID-19 vaccination requirement on foreign visitors, which will now allow some to board flights into the U.S. with only a single dose of a COVID-19 vaccine from Pfizer or Moderna. 

"Because some traveler vaccine records might not specify whether recent Moderna or Pfizer doses received were bivalent, CDC will consider anybody with record of a single dose of Moderna or Pfizer vaccine issued on or after August 16, 2022, to meet the requirements," the agency said in updates published Thursday to its website.

The agency said it chose August because it is the "earliest that travelers could have received a bivalent vaccine."