U.S. to lift COVID test requirement for international air travel
It’s another departure for an American pandemic rule.
The U.S. will lift a requirement that international travelers flying into the U.S. receive negative coronavirus test results within a day before lift off, CNN reported Friday, a pandemic landmark reached after global COVID case counts fell sharply this spring.
The requirement is expected to end at midnight Sunday, CNN reported, citing an unnamed Biden administration official. The U.S. first implemented a COVID testing requirement for flights into the U.S. in January 2021.
The White House did not immediately respond to requests for comment on Friday morning. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which ordered the current mandate for travelers 2 and older in December, deferred comment to the White House.
Passengers wait in line at the security checkpoint at Ronald Reagan Washington D.C. National Airport. (Evan Vucci/)
The CDC, which faced heavy lobbying from the airline industry, is expected to reassess the testing decision in 90 days.
The U.S. Travel Association, a trade group, promptly praised the move.
“Today marks another huge step forward for the recovery of inbound air travel and the return of international travel to the United States,” Roger Dow, the president of the U.S. Travel Association, said in a statement.
“The Biden administration is to be commended for this action, which will welcome back visitors from around the world and accelerate the recovery of the U.S. travel industry,” he added in the statement.
Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto, a Nevada Democrat, also issued a statement saying she was pleased about the end of the mandate, describing it as “burdensome.”
She had worked for months with the Biden administration on the issue, according to her office, and pushed the White House to terminate the mandate.
FILE - In this May 28, 2020, file photo, a passenger wears personal protective equipment on a Delta Airlines flight after landing in Minneapolis, United States of America. The European Union Aviation Safety Agency said Wednesday that from next week onward it is no longer recommending the use of medical masks at airports and on planes due to the coronavirus. (AP Photo/John Minchillo, File) (John Minchillo/)
The global count of confirmed COVID cases for the last week of May was around 3.2 million, according to a World Health Organization tally, down from a weekly high of nearly 23.3 million in January.
The weekly global coronavirus death toll has fallen to its lowest level since March 2020, according to WHO.
In the U.S., COVID death rates appear slightly elevated from last summer’s lows, according to federal figures, though the American fatality picture is far better than it was during the winter omicron wave.