International travel will become much easier.
The White House announced Friday that the United States will no longer require a pre-departure COVID-19 test for entry into the country, starting Sunday.
The requirement will be lifted at 00:01 ET, according to a senior administration official. The rule change comes more than a year after the county began requiring a negative test for entry, and more than two years after the pandemic began.
Under current entry requirements, air passengers must test negative for coronavirus no more than one day before boarding a flight to the United States. The rule applies to all travelers, regardless of vaccination status or citizenship, who have recently recovered from the virus.
The decision was made, the official said, as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention determined, based on scientific evidence, that the requirement was no longer necessary. The decision will be reviewed in 90 days and the health agency plans to evaluate it on an ongoing basis.
If there is a need to reinstate the pre-departure screening requirement (for example, in the case of new options regarding options), the official continued, the CDC plans to do so.
A number of other countries, including the UK, have already eliminated pre-departure testing requirements for fully vaccinated visitors.
The requirements for travelers entering the US by land or ferry remain unchanged: non-US citizens, citizens, and permanent residents can only enter if they are fully vaccinated. Land ports or ferry terminals do not require testing.
Are Travel Restrictions Working?
The World Health Organization in January urged countries not to rely on proof of vaccination as a precondition for visiting a country..
Under the new US entry requirements, unvaccinated citizens and permanent residents will be able to enter with a negative test result, but most foreign nationals will still need proof of full vaccination to enter.
The mandates contradict findings that show travel restrictions slow the spread of the virus but do little to prevent it.
“We know that travel restrictions cannot stop the spread of these pathogens, especially when you have a new pathogen that mostly spreads when people are asymptomatic or mild,” Maria van Kerkhove, WHO COVID technical lead, told USA TODAY. -19. February. “You can slow the spread, but that won’t stop the spread.”
Stuart Simonson, assistant director general of the WHO New York office, added at the time that while travel restrictions may work “as a domestic policy issue”, their effectiveness as a public health measure is less certain.
“Do (travel restrictions) show the public that something is being done? If that’s your point of view, then they work,” Simonson said. “Do they work in terms of public health? Do they reduce the rate of propagation or the propagation itself? This is another important take on it and there are many…
