The Biden administration is considering requiring more stringent coronavirus testing for everyone traveling to the United States
Officials considered the potential changes Tuesday night and no final decisions have been made, but the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention confirmed in a statement that the agency is working on revising the testing requirements for travelers because of the new Omicron variant.
“A revised order would shorten the mandatory screening period for all non-international passengers to one day prior to departure for the United States,” a CDC spokesperson said. “This reinforces already strong protocols for international travel, including requirements for foreign visitors to be fully vaccinated.”
Currently, vaccinated travelers must check in three days before departure. The move under consideration will shorten that time to one day.
Mandatory quarantine for returning US citizens was not considered, according to a White House official.
“The Administration continues to evaluate appropriate measures to protect the American people from COVID-19, particularly as we learn more about the Omicron variant, including looking at more stringent testing requirements for with international travel. Policy discussions are ongoing throughout the government and no final decision has been made yet,” a White House official told CNN.
CDC Director, Dr Rochelle Walensky, told reporters earlier on Tuesday that the agency was “evaluating how to make international travel as safe as possible, including near-departure testing. timing of flights and considerations around additional screening upon arrival and self-isolation.”
Walensky also said the CDC is expanding surveillance at four major international airports to track travelers’ Omicron variants.
Dr. Vivek Murthy, US surgeon general, said on CNN’s “Erin Burnett OutFront” on Tuesday night that “CDC is looking at a number of measures right now. It hasn’t fully decided on what yet. it is working on, but I believe some of the measures it looks at will have a significant impact on our ability to detect the virus before it gets here.”
Asked on Tuesday how long the current travel restrictions will remain in place, President Joe Biden said, “Well, that depends.”
“This happens every week to determine what we need and what the status of the job is. We’ll learn a lot more over the next few weeks about the lethality of this virus, about how contagious it is, about whether or not we can control it, etc,” he continued.
On Thursday, Biden is expected to announce a federal strategy to tackle Covid-19 this winter. The president said the new strategy will focus “not with decommissioning or decommissioning, but with broader vaccinations, boosters, testing and more.”
So far, the Biden administration has indicated that further restrictions on travel are not anticipated.
Research on the new variant – including on its severity, transmissibility, and detectability – is rapidly evolving.
“(T)restricting ravel can slow Omicron’s speed, it can’t stop it,” the president said Monday. “But here’s what it does: It gives us time. It gives us time to take more action, to do it faster, to make sure people understand that you have to get vaccinated.”
This story was updated with additional details on Tuesday.
.
