WASHINGTON, June 10 (Reuters) – The United States will lift Sunday’s 17-month requirement that people arriving in the country with an aerial test be negative for COVID-19, an official said. industry.
An official announcement will be made later on Friday. The step comes when the busy summer travel season begins and airlines are already preparing for a record search. Airlines said many Americans did not travel abroad for fear that they would test positive and remain blocked abroad.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has found that science and data show that pre-departure COVID tests are no longer needed, said the official, who declined to be named.
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The measure will take effect at 12:01 a.m. Sunday and the CDC will review the decision in 90 days, the official said.
The United States requires arriving international air passengers to provide negative tests before departure in January 2021. In December, the CDC tightened rules to require passengers to test negative within one day before flights to the United States, not three days.
The CDC did not require tests at land border crossings.
The official said: “If there is a need to restore the pre-departure testing requirement – including due to a new, affecting option – the CDC will not hesitate to act.”
Many countries in Europe and elsewhere have already dropped testing requirements.
The CDC still requires most non-US citizens to be vaccinated against COVID in order to travel to the United States.
Two officials told Reuters that the administration was considering removing testing rules only for vaccinated passengers.
American Airlines Boeing 777 takes off from Paris de Charles de Gaulle Airport in Roissy-en-France near Paris, France, December 2, 2021. REUTERS / Sarah Meyssonnier / File photo
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Airlines for America, a trading group representing major airlines, said “repealing this policy will help promote and restore air travel to the United States.”
IATA, the world’s largest airline trading group, welcomed what it called “great news” that the administration was “removing the ineffective COVID test before leaving for the US”.
In April, a federal judge declared CDC passengers’ requirements to wear masks in airplanes and transit centers as airports illegal, and the administration stopped enforcing them. The Ministry of Justice is appealing the order, but there is probably no decision before the autumn at the earliest.
“NONSENSE”
American Airlines (AAL.O) CEO Robert Izom told a conference last week that testing requirements were “meaningless” and depressed leisure and business travel.
Many lawmakers have pressured the Biden administration to remove the testing rules by recently contacting senior White House officials to make the case.
“I am pleased that the CDC has stopped the onerous requirement to test for coronavirus for international travelers,” said Nevada Senator Catherine Cortes Masto.
Raymond James said in a research note that lifting restrictions “is an important catalyst for international travel.”
Delta Air Lines (DAL.N) chief executive Ed Bastian told Reuters last week that dropping the requirements would boost travel, noting that 44 of Delta’s 50 countries do not require tests.
Roger Dow, executive director of the American Tourism Association, said Friday’s move would “accelerate the recovery of the American tourism industry”, which has been hit hard by the pandemic.
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Report by David Shepardson Edited by Chizu Nomiyama, Mark Porter and Francis Carey
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