The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has announced that it does not plan to require coronavirus testing before domestic flights, for now. Airline executives fiercely criticized the idea in recent weeks, arguing it would diminish already-weak demand and reduce valuable testing opportunities for medical purposes.
“At this time, CDC is not recommending a required point of departure testing for the domestic travel,” the CDC mentioned Friday, according to The Wall Street Journal. “As part of our close monitoring of the pandemic, in particular, the continued spread of variants, we’ll continue to review public health options for containing and mitigating the spread of COVID-19 in the travel space.”
The news was announced on the same day that White House Coronavirus Task Force Director Jeffrey Zients met virtually with executives for major U.S. carriers, including American Airlines, United Airlines, and Southwest Airlines,
The CDC offered no further explanation for its latest update on the trending travel topic, simply stressing existing guidance to avoid all travel in the combat against COVID-19.
Although the executives who run main carriers, including American, Southwest, JetBlue, and Delta, say they assist the coronavirus testing requirement for international travelers entering the U.S., these leaders have blasted the same mandate for domestic travel as expensive and impractical.
Anxieties spiked last week when Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg mentioned an “active conversation” with the CDC on such a mandate throughout a Feb. 7 interview with Axios.
In early February, the public health institute mandated that all U.S. travelers ages 2 and up should wear face masks throughout the entire journey, whether they’re traveling by air, bus, boat, train, or via any other location that provides transportation.
In January, the CDC introduced that negative tests will likely be required of passengers on all international flights to the U.S. following news of more infectious strains from abroad.
