WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Nearly all air travelers will have to submit a negative coronavirus test to enter the United States according to the extended test requirements announced Tuesday.
Under the rules, which will go into effect on Jan. 26, nearly all travelers, including U.S. citizens, must submit a negative test within three days of leaving or recovering COVID-19 documentation, according to an order signed by the director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Robert Redfield.
All travelers 2 years of age or older must meet them, except for passengers traveling in the United States only. The CDC will also consider waiving testing requirements for airlines flying to countries with little or no test capacity, including some Caribbean locations.
The order drastically expands a requirement imposed on December 28 for travelers arriving from the UK as a more transmissible variant of the virus circulating there.
In an interview, Marty Cetron, director of CDC’s global quarantine and migration division, said, “We have to really take the lead … We have to take these mutations seriously.”
Canada imposed similar rules for almost all international arrivals as of January 7, as did many other countries.
The CDC confirmed last week that it had released a proposal to extend the testing requirement after discussing the idea for weeks. Some senior White House officials opposed it, and officials briefed on the issue said last week that U.S. public health officials had essentially given up approval until President-elect Joe Biden stepped in. in office.
On Monday, at a White House meeting, Redfield re-presented an urgent case to adopt the test requirements, people informed of the meeting. He expressed concern that vaccines might not be effective against virus variants.
Airlines for America, an industry trade group, praised the testing plan. The airlines had also wanted the ban on the removal of most non-US visitors who have recently been to Brazil and most of Europe, but the White House chose not to end it.
Cetron said entry restrictions “should be actively reconsidered.”
Cetron confirmed that the CDC has discussed the idea of extending the testing requirement to U.S. domestic flights, but stressed that the new order only applies to international flights.
Report by David Shepardson; Editing by Chris Reese, Dan Grebler and Cynthia Osterman