Travellers To the US Must Now Provide Negative Covid Test Less than 24 Hours Old

The new rule would be much more stringent and could significantly reduce travel as scheduling a test and getting results within 24 hours can already be challenging. JL 

Michael Shear and colleagues report in the New York Times:

The CDC plans to toughen coronavirus testing and screening of international fliers, requiring them to provide a negative result from a test taken within 24 hours of departure. It was unclear whether the new 24-hour rule would require a rapid P.C.R. or antigen test. “If we found that a test was not effective at picking up the variant, we would remove that from the list that is accepted to enter the country." Finding a clinic that could meet the 24-hour mark would make traveling home much harder.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention plans to toughen coronavirus testing and screening of international fliers to the United States by requiring them to provide a negative result from a test taken within 24 hours of departure, a spokesman for the agency said Tuesday night.

The move to strengthen the testing regime reflects growing concern about the Omicron variant, a highly mutated form of the virus that was first documented by researchers in South Africa and detected in more than a dozen countries around the world.

“C.D.C. is working to modify the current global testing order for travel as we learn more about the Omicron variant; a revised order would shorten the timeline for required testing for all international air travelers to one day before departure to the United States,” said the spokesman, Jason McDonald.

“This strengthens already robust protocols in place for international travel, including requirements for foreign travelers to be fully vaccinated,” he added.

Earlier Tuesday, a senior administration official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because no final decisions had been made, said health officials were examining whether current testing — which allows fully vaccinated people to take a P.C.R. test up to three days before departing on a flight to the United States — was stringent enough. It was unclear whether the new 24-hour rule would require a rapid P.C.R. or antigen test.

President Biden has said he will announce on Thursday his plans for enhancing the fight against the pandemic. It is not clear whether he will announce tougher testing requirements for international travelers, which were first reported by The Washington Post, during Thursday’s speech. Mr. McDonald offered no timeline for the C.D.C.’s action.

In the meantime, Mr. McDonald said, the C.D.C. continues to recommend that all travelers get a coronavirus test three to five days after arrival in the United States. Unvaccinated travelers should self-isolate and quarantine for seven days after arrival, even if they test negative.

Natalie Quillian, the deputy coordinator for the Covid response at the White House, said in an interview on Monday that the Omicron variant had prompted the administration to re-evaluate its efforts to ensure that people entering the country were not carrying the virus.

“We’re constantly looking at what can we do to make that travel system even stronger,” she said. “For example, right now we’re assessing all of our tests to make sure they’re effective in picking up this variant.”

She added: “If we found that a test was not effective at picking up the variant, we would remove that from the list that is accepted to enter the country.”

A 24-hour testing rule could make visiting the United States difficult, some travelers said. Paula Tolton, 23, a student in Taipei, Taiwan, said the plan made her worry about missing the flight she planned to take next month to visit her family in Jacksonville, Fla.

Even the current 72-hour rule is nerve-racking, she said. “I’ve had that stress before when a P.C.R. test didn’t come back when I was supposed to fly here in April,” she said. “I was freaking out.” Finding a clinic that could meet the 24-hour mark would make traveling home much harder, she added.