US mandates airline passengers to provide negative COVID-19 test result before boarding [Video]

WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW:

• The US will require all airline passengers to show a negative COVID-19 test before boarding flights with US destinations.
• A passenger won’t be permitted to fly if he/she was not able to secure a negative test result.
• The order will take effect on January 26, as confirmed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

All international travelers will soon be required to show proof of a negative COVID-19 test prior to boarding flights going to the US, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

In a statement released on Tuesday afternoon, the CDC said that it is “expanding the requirement for a negative COVID-19 test to all air passengers entering the United States.”

Airline passengers, regardless of citizenship, would be “required to get a viral test within the 3 days before their flight to the U.S. departs, and provide written documentation of their laboratory test result (paper or electronic copy) to the airline or provide documentation of having recovered from COVID-19,” the statement wrote.

Airlines will be mandated to validate every passenger’s documentation. A passenger would be denied to board if he or she does not have a test to show to designated officials.

“Testing before and after travel is a critical layer to slow the introduction and spread of COVID-19. This strategy is consistent with the current phase of the  pandemic and more efficiently protects the health of Americans,” the statement added

The order will take effect on January 26.

According to the Wall Street Journal, the move came weeks after the White House’s COVID-19 task force and federal agencies have aligned on ways to mitigate the pandemic.

A month before the new travel order, the CDC also mandated airline passengers to secure proof of a negative test result within three days before going to the US from the UK. The direction came as a more contagious COVID-19 variant was detected in the UK.

US citizens are encouraged not to travel to the UK, per the CDC’s guidelines.

Despite the said guideline and the continuous surge of cases, traveling Americans go as usual. On December 23, the nation witnessed the highest number of airport travels in a single day since the outbreak in March, as over 1.1 million people were checked according to the Transportation Security Administration.

The US has recorded more than 22.7 million coronavirus infections and nearly 380,000 fatalities due to COVID-19, as of Tuesday.

Globally, coronavirus cases have reached over 91.3 million with almost two million deaths, based on the tracking by The New York Times.

Source: PEOPLE.com