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The American Society of Travelers (ASTA) has formally requested the White House to exempt Americans flying to the United States from the pre-departure testing requirement. Currently all travelers, irrespective of nationality or residence, must present a negative Covid test within 1 day of travel to the North American country.
The measure, which was enacted in late 2021 in response to the spread of newly-identified variants such as the Omicron, has brought disruption to the travel plans of many. After all, no international travel is risk-free nowadays and testing positive while abroad will still prevent a majority of U.S. citizens from flying home on the intended date.
Exempting Americans From Inbound Testing Could Be A Game Changer For International Travel
Although it is hard to speculate on what kinds of regulations are being considered by the Biden Administration regarding the pandemic, it is safe to say that scrapping the testing requirement for American citizens returning to the United States would ease international travel and boost traveler confidence.
The ASTA's Executive Vice President Eben Peck is well aware of that, and in penning a letter to Jeffrey Zients, the Covid-19 Recovery Team Coordinator for the White House, he specifically requested that U.S. citizens abroad be allowed to fly back without a Covid test. The move would certainly be welcomed both by the traveler community and IATA, who recently called on countries to lift restrictions for vaccinated passengers.
In the letter, Peck states that, at ASTA, they are committed to working towards a “travel industry restart” alongside federal, state, and international governments, as well as “the broader travel ecosystem”, and in a way that prioritizes the safety and health of American citizens.
According to Peck, while ASTA members understand the rationale behind the testing mandate, it still presents enormous challenges to travelers. Regarding such challenges, Peck highlights the “uncertainty as to the availability of timely testing in-destination“, seeing that all United States-bound passengers need to get tested within 1 day of arrival, irrespective of vaccination.
As some Travel Off Path readers who are also frequent travelers will recall, laboratories abroad have different processing times when it comes to testing. Additionally, not all of them are able to deliver results in 24 hours.
Peck also brings attention to the “financial and psychological burdens associated with being prevented from returning home due to a positive (or false positive) test result”. While high Covid viral loads are usually short-lived, some individuals may continue testing positive for weeks, even though they are no longer infectious.
The ASTA's concerns echoes those of the World Health Organization, which has also urged national governments to relax testing regimes that place a disproportionate burden on travelers.
Peck also refers to the “general chilling effect” testing requirements have on international travel bookings, with the recent shortening of the testing window from 72 to 24 hours “exacerbating these challenges“.
Science Seems To Indicate Tight Travel Rules Are Ineffective In Barring New Variants
For the ASTA representative, inbound testing is the “single biggest barrier to the full recovery of the international travel system”, when over 200 million Americans are already fully vaccinated.
Recently, a study conducted by Oxera and Edge Health on the United Kingdom‘s epidemiological scenario concluded that, while tighter measures including testing for vaccinated individuals delayed the arrival of Omicron, it only did so for five days. The U.K. seems to have caught up with the scientific evidence, removing all testing requirements for vaccinated passengers.
Citing the U.K.'s scrapping of additional Omicron restrictions, as well as the European Union's decision to no longer recommend testing for fully immunized residents, Peck calls vaccination the “single most important element of the fight against Covid-19″, and the industry's sole chance of recovering anytime soon.
Lastly, Peck mentioned the importance of “finding a balance” between protecting the American people while still allowing cross-border movement of commerce and individuals.
While the ASTA's move will surely be commended by other travel associations and American travelers, the White House still has full authority regarding measures enacted at the U.S. border.
Currently, as stated in the CDC webpage, all U.S. arrivals are required to present proof of a negative Covid test 1 day prior to arrival. If obtaining a negative test is not possible due to a recent persistent infection, an official recovery certificate will be accepted as a valid document for travel, as long as the infection itself is not older than 90 days before departure.
Read More:
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This article originally appeared on TravelOffPath.com
Opinions expressed here are the author’s alone, not those of any bank, credit card issuer, hotel, airline, or other entity. This content has not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by any of the entities included within the post.
ajdj
Thursday 3rd of February 2022
first world moves
Rich
Thursday 3rd of February 2022
No one thinks of the extra risk to other passengers such as children and the sick who cannot be vaccinated. Lateral flow antigens can be while you wait at airports and with free verifly you do Not need to worry about having all the paperwork.
Jay
Monday 7th of February 2022
@Rich, the Randox testing at Dublin airport in December had 3 hour lines while your instructions told you to show up no more than 5 minutes before your scheduled appointment time. Imagine getting there and seeing a line wrap 3x around the building. It was chaos and the elderly, children and infirm couldn't stand that long (outside in December) and once you got inside it was like war triage with cels made of hung bedsheets in one meter square cubicles. I don't know how anyone made it on their flight if they tried to do it the same day. It was insanely stressfull. The 24 hour requirement is too tight especially if you are travelling to a main airport from a smaller town and trying to time things correctly. It was impossible to use mail in tests as they don't guarantee you'll have a result in 24 hours and the smaller towns may or may not have fit to fly tests which render an official certificate, available at all. Navigating public transit or trying to drive in a large foreign city to find a place with the proper test etc is no solution either. It needs to be 48+ hours, or not at all.