The Biden administration has decided to lift the requirement that all travelers traveling by air to the United States, including US citizens, must show negative coronavirus test results before boarding flights, a senior government official said Friday morning.
Last year, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention required travelers going to the United States to have a negative test result in an effort to slow the spread of the fast-moving virus and its variants.
That policy expires at 12:01 a.m. Sunday, the official said, after CDC officials determined that the widespread adoption of vaccines and treatments for Covid-19 no longer makes it a requirement.
But the official said the CDC will re-evaluate the decision within 90 days and said the requirement for pre-departure testing could be reintroduced if there are new concerns about another variant.
The testing requirement was first introduced in January 2021, when less than 10 percent of Americans were vaccinated and new infections hit record levels, but in recent months with higher vaccination rates and less severe cases, travel industry representatives have put pressure on the Biden. stepped up. administration to lift the claim.
The government official said the CDC would continue to recommend testing before travel.