Biden announces plan to combat covid-19 in the winter months 5:30
Washington (CNN) -
The Biden administration's new and more stringent covid-19 testing requirements for all travelers arriving in the United States will go into effect Monday, an administration official told CNN.
The new measures will require each traveler flying to the US from another country to test negative one day before departure.
This changes the rules that allowed travelers to take the test up to three days before entering the country.
The new rule from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) will go into effect at 12:01 a.m. ET on Monday.
New travel rules for the United States: what you need to know about the changes due to the omicron variant
Changes in the face of omicron threat
The change in policy, which President Joe Biden announced Thursday along with a series of new measures to combat COVID-19 this winter, underscores the potential threat posed by the newly discovered omicron variant.
Scientists are still working to determine how communicable the variant is, how much it makes people sick, and how well current vaccines against it work.
Will omicron make us restart our fight against the pandemic?
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"Experts say that covid-19 cases will continue to increase in the coming weeks and this winter," the president said.
"So we have to be prepared."
Any foreign national traveling to the US must be fully vaccinated, although there is no vaccination requirement for US citizens traveling by air, either globally or domestically.
The White House said earlier in the day that a domestic travel vaccine requirement was still on the table as an option for the future.
Biden, on how long the measures will be in effect
On Monday, the US banned all travel from South Africa and seven neighboring countries, with the exception of US citizens and legal permanent residents, who must test negative to enter the US but not once they have arrived.
When asked on Tuesday how long the current travel restrictions would remain in place, Biden said, "Well, it depends."
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Ómicron could cause 50% of coronavirus cases in Europe 2:31
"It will be week by week, to determine what we need and what (is) the state of things. We are going to learn much more in the next two weeks about the lethality of this virus, about how much it spreads, about whether what we have we can control. , etcetera, ”he continued.
Health officials are urging people to get vaccinated against COVID-19 or receive a booster dose if they are eligible.
Other measures such as masks, hand washing, physical distancing and ventilation will continue to work against the omicron variant.
The delta variant of the coronavirus remains the dominant variant globally and in the United States.
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