The United States is planning to make its travel requirements even stricter in the face of the spreading Omicron variant. According to Bloomberg, the Biden Administration will require all air travelers to the U.S. to be tested within a day of their departure regardless of vaccination status.
President Joe Biden is expected to detail the new requirements in a speech on Thursday. The current policy states that inbound travelers to the U.S. —vaccinated and vaccinated alike—might get tested for COVID-19 within three days of travel.
Earlier this week, the U.S. banned travel on foreign nationals who had traveled through South Africa, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Namibia, Lesotho, Eswatini, Mozambique and Malawi in the past 14 days.
U.S. Travel Association executive vice president of public affairs and policy Tori Emerson Barnes issued the following statement following the announcement: “We hope this measure to narrow the pre-departure testing window will be temporary until more is learned about the Omicron variant. In the meantime, the travel industry urges everyone to get vaccinated and boosted as soon as possible.
“It has long been known that measures to combat the virus and its variants would evolve and require us to be nimble and adapt.
“It is critically important that we communicate these policy changes clearly to global travelers and continue to welcome all qualified visitors to the United States.”
Germany, on the other hand, announced a nationwide lockdown on those who remain unvaccinated, with plans for mandatory vaccinations coming soon. According to BBC, unvaccinated people will be banned from accessing all but the most essential businesses, such as supermarkets and pharmacies; they will be barred from restaurants, cinemas, leisure facilities and many shops.
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