A Houston couple stranded in Mexico after testing positive for COVID-19 on a birthday trip

Beginning in January 2021, the CDC began requiring travelers to have a negative COVID-19 test to return to the country. Now, with rising vaccines and declining COVID-19 cases, travel companies say people have re-booked trips to foreign countries.

But many people are now trapped in other countries after testing positive for the virus, including Houston resident Antonio Delgado, who said he was stranded after he and his wife traveled to Mexico for his birthday.

According to the CDC, no one can fly to the United States until the doctor has received it or proves a negative test three days before the trip. In cases such as Delgado, travelers have been instructed to isolate themselves for 10 to 14 days abroad.

COVID-19 is already widespread in the United States, with more than 22 million cases reported to date. The new measures are designed to try to prevent travelers from incorporating newer forms of the virus that scientists say can spread more easily.

The CDC order applies to U.S. citizens and foreign travelers. International travel to the United States has already been decimated by the pandemic restrictions imposed last March that banned most foreigners from Europe and other areas. Foreign travel to the United States and Americans to international destinations in December 2020 was down 76% from a year earlier, according to the trading group Airlines for America.

Airlines are ordered to prevent passengers from boarding if they have no evidence of a negative test.

“Testing doesn’t eliminate all risks,” CDC Director Robert R. Redfield said in a statement. “But combined with a period of stay at home and daily precautions, such as wearing masks and socializing, can make travel safer, healthier and more responsible by reducing distribution to planes, airports and destinations.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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