New Biden Travel Requirements for US Begin Monday

Travelers to the US must present these negative covid-19 tests 0:47

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.

These are some:

• Foreign travelers arriving in the United States must be fully vaccinated.

• International travelers entering the country will have to undergo a 24-hour test before leaving for the United States.

• Unvaccinated Americans and legal permanent residents can enter the country with a test performed within one day of leaving for the United States.

• All travelers must wear masks at airports, airplanes, and public transportation.

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.

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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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"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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