U.S. to require negative Covid-19 tests for international air passengers(reuters.com)
reuters.com
U.S. to require negative Covid-19 tests for international air passengers
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-airlines/u-s-to-require-negative-covid-19-tests-for-international-air-passengers-sources-idUSKBN29H2KD
439 comments
A similar requirement has been enacted in Canada and what has happened is that Canadians with covid can't return home to Canada and are stuck abroad.
It really gives some teeth to the "do not travel" recommendation - if you get covid abroad you can't come home until you test negative. If you get covid at home and then go abroad you can't come home until you test negative.
I think people who previously would have travelled and just risked it will be a lot more careful now since they can't get home if they are sick with covid. Instead of dozens of flights per day entering canada with covid cases we now have zero [1].
[1] http://www.bccdc.ca/health-info/diseases-conditions/covid-19...
[1] http://www.bccdc.ca/health-info/diseases-conditions/covid-19...
I recently had to get a negative COVID result to travel to Hawaii to see family. Hawaii only accepted tests from a very limited number of providers which complicated things, but after some effort I made an appointment and got a test. The rest of the process was very painless. We all had to keep masks on for the entire flight of course since there was no requirement that we all have a negative result before getting on the flight but it was comforting to know that nearly everyone else on the flight would have had a negative result so as to avoid the mandatory 14 day quarantine upon arrival.
I don't at all see how this is relevant to the United States in 2021, when COVID-19 is almost completely prevalent, and we require universal vaccination to exit out of the pandemic - International travel restrictions seem meaningless to me now - though they would have been invaluable in January 2020, and maybe even February 2020 - right now the major risk of COVID-19 infection is inside the United States. A handful (or heck, even hundreds) of people coming into the country won't make any difference when we have thousands of new cases a day regardless.
There's a reason Epidemologists don't put much stock in travel restrictions once a pandemic is well underway around the world - they don't do much good.
But - generally, having widespread (ideally very sensitive) COVID testing for any type of travel outside of the home is a good thing. We should have it universally available. Ideally <$10, something that everyone could do weekly, or even daily if they travel a lot.
Just unclear what the focus on international travel is all about here.
There's a reason Epidemologists don't put much stock in travel restrictions once a pandemic is well underway around the world - they don't do much good.
But - generally, having widespread (ideally very sensitive) COVID testing for any type of travel outside of the home is a good thing. We should have it universally available. Ideally <$10, something that everyone could do weekly, or even daily if they travel a lot.
Just unclear what the focus on international travel is all about here.
This is no surprise, although according to CDC research, this only reduces the infection rate among these passengers by 5-9%.
A lot of EU countries require their own citizens of their countries to get a COVID-19 PCR test prior to entry. A lot of times, this has to be paid out of pocket abroad.
A lot of EU countries require their own citizens of their countries to get a COVID-19 PCR test prior to entry. A lot of times, this has to be paid out of pocket abroad.
I'm glad it's happening (better late than never), but they really should have started doing this a year ago.
An issue with PCR tests is that most of them use a cycle threshold of 40, which produces way to many false positives.
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/29/health/coronavirus-testin...
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/29/health/coronavirus-testin...
By now people can purchase negative Covid PCR test results at many international airports, sometimes for as little as $0.50. Entrepreneurial spirit is hard to tame.
This is moronic. We have between 30M and 130M cases here. There is no mathematically possible way in hell that international passengers could bring COVID here in any noticeable way at this point.
Why would they do this? I'll tell you the one and only one reason: some people are making tons of money off it. I just flew back to Hawaii from California and had to pay $170 for a COVID test, even though I'm already immune.
Why would they do this? I'll tell you the one and only one reason: some people are making tons of money off it. I just flew back to Hawaii from California and had to pay $170 for a COVID test, even though I'm already immune.
I get why they’re doing this, but I fear as a society we’ve learned the wrong lessons about testing.
These tests have a pretty high failure rate. That’s probably ok for social level spread tracking (with wide error bars) or low volume contact tracing (where quarantining a few extra people is worth it). It’s far better than nothing of course, but it’s also far short of what we expect from something like a pregnancy test.
But as a means to sign people off as safe to travel? Yeah, not so much. So many people have had the “one negative test so I can go party” only to discover what a false negative is.
These tests have a pretty high failure rate. That’s probably ok for social level spread tracking (with wide error bars) or low volume contact tracing (where quarantining a few extra people is worth it). It’s far better than nothing of course, but it’s also far short of what we expect from something like a pregnancy test.
But as a means to sign people off as safe to travel? Yeah, not so much. So many people have had the “one negative test so I can go party” only to discover what a false negative is.
Most US states already require a negative test or quarantine, with some exceptions. The only issue is that almost no one is enforcing it (maybe some airports do, I'm not sure). It makes sense if it becomes like visa where airlines wouldn't let you board the plane without it (until things are under control). It can be an issue for emergency travel though. Thinking about it, this should be of interest of airlines to protect their staff.
It's not clear to me how this works. What if you've recently recovered from a confirmed case of COVID-19? People can still test positive up to 90 days after recovery, even though all guidances say they stop being contagious 10 days from the onset of symptoms (assuming symptoms have improved and no fever).
And what about people who have been vaccinated. Wouldn't proof of vaccination be sufficient and spare limited testing capacity?
And what about people who have been vaccinated. Wouldn't proof of vaccination be sufficient and spare limited testing capacity?
Serious question - is it allowed to travel to Europe or Asia right now from the US for non-relocation purposes?
I'm always stunned when I see these questions because I am like "People are traveling internationally - test or no test????"
I'm always stunned when I see these questions because I am like "People are traveling internationally - test or no test????"
I'm pretty sure that there is enough domestic Covid that this is pointless now?
Not to be inflammatory, but why? The only benefit I can see is reducing the likelihood of new strains getting into the US, but to me this is like a swimming pool requiring people to be dry before they get in.
It would make sense as part of a national strategy, no doubt. But on it's own, I don't see the value in this?
Especially since it doesn't apply to passengers transiting through the US, so technically not everybody on the flight will have to do this, meaning you're going to spend a lot of time in an enclosed place with (as a complete guess) 80% covid negative people and 20% YOLO people. That's, err, that's exactly how covid spreads...
It would make sense as part of a national strategy, no doubt. But on it's own, I don't see the value in this?
Especially since it doesn't apply to passengers transiting through the US, so technically not everybody on the flight will have to do this, meaning you're going to spend a lot of time in an enclosed place with (as a complete guess) 80% covid negative people and 20% YOLO people. That's, err, that's exactly how covid spreads...
This makes sense. The only question is why this wasn't done as soon as travel was restarted and tests became readily available across the world.
This is at least 6-9 months too late.
This is at least 6-9 months too late.
Just so silly. More theater. We're already seeing millions of new cases per week including the strains with mutations to the target spike proteins - what problem does this solve?
Enforcing disease restrictions at borders is basically pointless in a country with massive uncontrolled spread inside its 300M+ population.
They should do this for every bar, restaurant, uber, taxi, train station, and airport inside the US; that would solve the issue right quick.
This is just xenophobia, nothing more. There's more covid danger inside the US than there is from people coming from outside of it.
They should do this for every bar, restaurant, uber, taxi, train station, and airport inside the US; that would solve the issue right quick.
This is just xenophobia, nothing more. There's more covid danger inside the US than there is from people coming from outside of it.
I love how in the photo there's two people with their nose outside the mask. It's clear as day why infections are up everywhere.
Interesting, what exactly are they going to do if someone doesn't have one? IANAL, but as far as I recall from "what if they want you to unlock your phone/mount your encrypted drive/... on the border and threaten to not let you in" articles that purported to be written by lawyers, they cannot not let a citizen in.
This appears to only be required for inbound passengers. I wish it was also required for outbound. I not only want to prevent more COVID from coming into the country, but also want to increase the chances of my outbound flight being COVID free.
There's one thing I do not understand: they are introducing testing requirement, but still keep travel ban for all EU citizens in place. Why?
The infection rate in the US is so high that the average arriving international traveller has a lower chance of being infected than the average US resident. What exactly is the point of this? Constitutionality aside, you would literally make a bigger impact on mitigating the virus spread by testing random people on the street. Like DUI checkpoints or stop-and-frisk but for covid.
They should have done this when there were far fewer cases. It was really surprising to hear that you don’t need any tests or quarantining when you travel from other countries. Better late than never, I guess.
Are these PCR based tests? What is the accuracy rate? I was told it is far from 100%.
So is it possible that someone might test negative but then is actually asymptomatic?
This is exactly what happened last year in South Korea. People were tested many times and they were negative but turned out they were asymptomatic that the test kit failed to pick up.
So is it possible that someone might test negative but then is actually asymptomatic?
This is exactly what happened last year in South Korea. People were tested many times and they were negative but turned out they were asymptomatic that the test kit failed to pick up.
What a joke. Everyone (including Americans) should need a negative PCR test the day before they leave.
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No one laughs at USA government for doing this too late?
And this news sounds like, only not-yet-infected people are welcome to USA. So you can bring some gifts back.
HN readers always criticize on other countries but so lenient to USA.
And this news sounds like, only not-yet-infected people are welcome to USA. So you can bring some gifts back.
HN readers always criticize on other countries but so lenient to USA.
Long overdue! Really sad why this wasn't done earlier. Regardless of false negatives, this will certainly dent imported case numbers, though it would have had much more impact earlier on in the pandemic.
Why wasn't this done months ago? Seriously, is there any good reason?
As it happens, I currently have COVID. When I first noticed I was getting sick, I was scheduled to fly in the near future, so I got a rapid COVID test that delivers results in 15 minutes.
It was negative. I got another one, and it was negative too. I had thus intended to go ahead with the trip under the assumption I had a minor cold.
Later, a few days before I was to fly, I lost all smell and taste. Now I didn’t know what to think. I wasn’t particularly congested, and the loss of smell was total. I’d never experienced this before. Could both tests have been false negatives?
I delayed the flight (free of charge luckily, so no big deal) and got a test that had to be sent to a lab for analysis. A week later, the positive test result came back.
Take from this what you will. I'm not a scientist or a doctor and frankly there's nothing remotely intelligent I can say about the various tests out there for COVID. But if the rapid tests are as unreliable in general as they were for me, it’s sort of no wonder COVID is spreading like wildfire. I was very, very close to boarding a plane with an active case of COVID, and I would have if I hadn’t acted out of an abundance of caution.