As of Sunday, international airline passengers will no longer be required to take a Covid-negative test to enter the United States, a White House official has confirmed. However, the official said that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention would evaluate the policy “on the basis of science and in the context of circulating variants”, suggesting that the requirement could be restored if the country sees a significant resurgence of cases or a new rapidly spreading variant. The long-awaited move removes a policy that has been in place since January 2021 and comes after the US Department of Health and Human Services in April withdrew the requirement to use a mask for air travelers. More than 40 mayors representing cities such as Miami, San Francisco, Houston and Atlanta wrote to the Biden government earlier this week asking them to lift the requirement, citing the negative impact it had on local businesses. “US cities are still struggling to recover international visitors after more than two years of pandemic-related restrictions,” the bipartisan mayors’ team wrote, noting that international traffic was still 78 percent below pre-pandemic levels. “Our voters and businesses have suffered greatly from this sharp drop in international travel spending and cannot fully recover until this vital sector of the US economy recovers,” the mayors said, noting that 40 other countries had lifted their pre-departure testing requirements. . Their appeal followed similar demands from members of Congress, including a bipartisan congressional delegation from Nevada and 30 Republican senators. Airline executives had also expressed frustration with the pandemic travel requirement. American Airlines CEO Robert Isom said last week: “I think we are all disappointed. “We are really disappointed.” The defense teams of the companies welcomed the overthrow on Friday. “Today marks another huge step forward for the recovery of incoming air travel and the return of international travel to the United States,” said Roger Dow, president of the US Travel Association. He noted that more than half of overseas travelers cited the pre-departure test requirement “as a significant deterrent to inbound travel to the US” in a recent Morning Consult group survey. A recent analysis by the travel industry trade group found that lifting the requirement could bring an additional 5.4 million visitors to the US and an additional $ 9 billion in travel expenses for the rest of 2022. “Removing this requirement will allow the industry to lead to a wider US economic and employment recovery,” Dow said. Additional Report by Kiran Stacey in Washington
