U.S. to require people flying from the UK to test negative for Covid, CDC says

The United States will start requiring people flying in from the U.Okay. to test negative for Covid-19 not more than 72 hours earlier than departure, the CDC stated in a late Thursday assertion.

The announcement comes after the U.Okay. earlier this week stated it recognized a new strain of Covid-19 that seems to unfold extra rapidly. The CDC stated President Donald Trump will signal the order on Friday, Christmas Day, and the measure will go into impact beginning Monday.

The CDC stated passengers would have to present airways with documentation of their lab outcomes from both polymerase chain response (PCR) or antigen assessments.

Airlines would even have to verify that passengers have examined negative earlier than boarding, the company stated. They would even have to block passengers from boarding in the event that they refuse to take a test.

Earlier this week, Delta Air Lines, Virgin Atlantic and British Airways started requiring passengers to test negative before boarding flights bound for New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport. United Airlines additionally requires negative test outcomes for passengers flying from London Heathrow to its hubs in Newark, New Jersey, Washington D.C., or Chicago.

The new pressure spurred dozens of countries to swiftly restrict travel from the U.K. in efforts to stop the pressure from coming into their very own borders. The U.S. had already restricted travel from the U.K. in March, barring foreigners who had been in the nation in the previous two weeks.

The World Health Organization stated, nevertheless, the new variant has additionally been detected in Australia, Denmark, Italy, Iceland and the Netherlands.

Earlier this week, the CDC prompt the new pressure might already be circulating in the U.S. undetected. While the variant has not but been present in the nation, the CDC famous that the U.S. has solely sequenced a fraction of Covid infections.