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Return to US restrictions changing

NYTimes just broke that international travelers must show proof of a negative coronavirus test taken the day before departing for the United States. Nothing about when this goes into effect. Biden to give details later today.

Posted by
10120 posts

"beginning early next week." per Washington Post.
And you will be even safer inside that plane with a 24-hour requirement. To me, 72 hours left a lot of room for error.

When I was exposed, I tested negative twice, on a Monday and Wednesday, although I already had a fever and runny nose. It wasn't until Friday that the test picked up enough virus to test positive although the fever had already finished--thanks to the vaccine.

Posted by
14811 posts

The official word has not been released...however....this is what is expected:

1) International travelers to the United States must provide a negative covid test within 24 hours of their flight. (Not the day before, within 24 hours meaning the test could be done the day of flight.)

2) The mask requirement on planes, trains, and interstate buses as well as stations and terminals will be extended into March.

3) This is expected to take effect week. Biden will announce the date today.

There will be no mandatory quarantine.

Posted by
9462 posts

Hmmm, in fact the White House did a group call with reporters last night to tell them about the details and embargoed the information until this morning U.S. time. They have now published the transcript here :

https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/press-briefings/2021/12/02/background-press-call-by-senior-administration-officials-on-new-actions-to-protect-americans-against-the-delta-and-omicron-variants-this-winter/

The key paragraph for our purposes on the Forum:

we will announce that we are further strengthening our testing requirement so that starting early next week, all international travelers will be required to test negative within one day of their departure to the United States, and that’s regardless of nationality or vaccination status.

Posted by
620 posts

At the risk of being pedantic, the US requirement for pre-departure testing is not 24 hours, but rather 1 day before departure.

https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/travelers/testing-international-air-travelers.html

==>"The 1-day period is 1 day before the flight’s departure. The Order uses a 1-day time frame instead of 24 hours to provide more flexibility to the air passenger and aircraft operator. By using a 1-day window, test acceptability does not depend on the time of the flight or the time of day that the test sample was taken.

For example, if your flight is at 1pm on a Friday, you could board with a negative test that was taken any time on the prior Thursday."<==