GTON — The Biden administration is lifting its requirement that international air travelers to the U.S. take a COVID-19 test within a day before boarding their flights, easing one of the last remaining government mandates meant to contain the spread of the coronavirus.
A senior administration official said the mandate expires Sunday at 12:01 a.m. ET, saying the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has determined that it's no longer necessary. The official, speaking Friday on the condition of anonymity to preview the formal announcement, said that the agency would reevaluate the need for the testing requirement every 90 days and that it could be reinstated if a troubling new variant emerges.
The number of new coronavirus cases and deaths reported globally fell everywhere last week except the Middle East and Southeast Asia, according to the World Health Organization.
In its latest weekly update on the pandemic, the U.N. health agency said Wednesday that confirmed cases dropped 12% to more than 3 million and reported deaths declined 22% to about 7,600.
WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus described the continuing decline of COVID-19, which peaked in January, as “a very encouraging trend.”
Still, he warned that the pandemic was not yet over and urged caution, even as many countries have dropped their coronavirus protocols and shifted into trying to live with the virus.
Tedros noted that 18 months after the first mass coronavirus immunization programs began in rich countries, 68 countries around the world have yet to protect 40% of their people. While enough vaccines are now available, demand has fallen, he said.
2022. [online] Available at: <https://www.12news.com/article/news/nation-world/us-lifts-international-travel-covid-test-requirement/507-41e74d84-27d9-4b42-8171-a4f117e72533> [Accessed 10 June 2022].