NEW YORK (AP) – Anyone flying to the US will soon have to prove a negative test for COVID-19, health officials announced Tuesday.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention demand expands on a similar demand announced late last month for passengers arriving from the United Kingdom. The new order will take effect in two weeks.
COVID is already widespread in the US, with more than 22 million cases to date, including more than 375,000 deaths. The new measures are designed to try to prevent travelers from bringing in newer forms of the virus that scientists say can spread more easily.
The CDC order applies to both US citizens and foreign travelers. The agency said it has postponed the effective date to Jan. 26 to give airlines and travelers time to comply.
International travel to the US has already been decimated by pandemic restrictions in place last March that banned most foreigners from Europe and other areas. Foreigners’ travel to the US and Americans to international destinations was 76% lower in December than a year earlier, according to trading group Airlines for America.
The new restrictions require air passengers to undergo a COVID-19 test within three days of their flight to the US and provide written evidence of the test result to the airline. Travelers can also provide documentation that they have had and recovered from the infection in the past.
Airlines are instructed to stop boarding passengers if they do not have proof of a negative test.
“Testing does not eliminate all risks,” CDC director Robert R. Redfield said in a statement. “But coupled with a stay at home period and everyday precautions, such as wearing masks and distance, it can make travel safer, healthier and more responsible by reducing the spread on planes, airports and destinations.”
The CDC order is “a reasonable approach” to reduce the risk of new variants entering the US from abroad, said Dr. Ashish Jha, dean of Brown University’s school of public health.
It is likely that the recently identified UK version of the virus “is likely to be found in every state or most states. This isn’t going to do anything for that, ”Jha said. So far, 10 states have reported 72 cases of the variant.
But the new sequence could stop or reduce the spread of other new versions of the virus, such as one recently identified in South Africa.
“I imagine other countries are going to impose (preflight tests) on us,” he added.
Airlines are lobbying for preflight testing to replace wide-ranging travel restrictions between the US and the rest of the world. In some cases, they have ensured that passengers avoid post-arrival quarantines by getting tested before their flight.
Testing “is the key to unlocking international borders and reopening global travel safely,” said Nicole Carriere, a spokeswoman for United Airlines, one of the three major US airlines flying to Europe and Asia.
Others say the CDC order is unlikely to trigger an immediate spike in international travel.
“People are encouraged by their public health authorities not to travel, even domestically,” said Henry Hartevedlt, a travel analyst for Atmosphere Research Group.
He doesn’t expect air travel to start until the summer, when more people have been vaccinated.
___
Koenig reported from Dallas
___
The Associated Press Department of Health and Science is supported by the Science Education Department of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. The AP is solely responsible for all content.