“There is currently an active discussion with the CDC,” Buttigieg told Axios. “What I can tell you is that it will be guided by data, by science, by medicine, and by the input of the people who will actually have to do this.”
Monday, Dr. Rochelle Walensky, director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), that screening American travelers for Covid-19 could be helpful. But she did not elaborate on whether there are plans to test domestic travelers.
“To the extent that we have available tests to do tests, I would really encourage people not to travel in the first place,” Walensky said at a White House briefing. “But when we are traveling, this would be yet another mitigating measure to try to reduce the spread.”
Will airports like LAX in Los Angeles handle domestic Covid-19 testing in the future? Biden’s administration is considering it.
Getty Images / Siegfried Layda
Domestic versus international testing
The discussion follows a CDC rule that went into effect in late January that requires negative Covid-19 testing for international travelers, US citizens, and residents entering the United States.
The US Travel Association, a national nonprofit trade association, called that rule for inbound travelers “the key to reopening international travel.”
However, the group does not support a test requirement for domestic air travelers.
Other groups are concerned
Industry association Airlines for America has also expressed concern about the potential testing requirements for domestic air travel.
In a recent letter to the White House, the organization highlighted the risk-based measures the industry has taken to counter the transmission of Covid-19, and research has shown that the risk of in-flight infection is low.
“Given the strong scientific evidence that the risk of Covid-19 transmission on board an aircraft is very low, we believe that a test requirement for domestic air travel is not warranted,” the letter reads.
“Furthermore, public health and economic data indicate that these policies would disproportionately prevent low-income travelers and rural Americans from traveling in small communities.”
A4A also reiterated the US Travel Association’s concern that such tests would divert resources from more pressing public health priorities.
CNN Health’s Jacqueline Howard and Nick Neville contributed to this report.