[Biden administration also
considering measures such as a 7-day self-quarantine and retesting several days
after arrival.]
By Lena H. Sun and Tyler Pager
As part of an enhanced
winter covid strategy Biden is expected to announce Thursday, U.S.
officials would require everyone entering the country to be tested one day
before boarding flights, regardless of their vaccination status or country of
departure. Administration officials are also considering a requirement that all
travelers get retested within three to five days of arrival.
In addition, they are debating a
controversial proposal to require all travelers, including U.S. citizens, to self-quarantine
for seven days, even if their test results are negative. Those who flout the
requirements might be subject to fines and penalties, the first time such
penalties would be linked to testing and quarantine measures for travelers in
the United States.
[What
to know about the omicron variant of the coronavirus]
The two testing measures are
detailed in a draft public health order written by the Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention that is under review by officials at the U.S. Health and
Human Services Department and the White House. The self quarantine-related
measures are not in that draft but could be added later if the proposals win
broader sign-off, said the officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity
because the order has not been finalized.
Since Thursday, administration
officials have held multiple calls to chart a response to contain the
new variant, which has a panoply of worrisome new mutations that may make it
more transmissible, according to a senior administration official
involved in the talks. Like a number of other nations, the United
States immediately restricted travel from several southern
African nations where the variant was first reported. But in recent days, since omicron has been identified in at least 19 countries spanning
the globe, U.S. officials, among others, are considering additional precautions
given that it may be several weeks before scientists are able to say whether
the variant might be able to evade current vaccines and treatments.
Currently, the United States
requires pre-departure coronavirus testing for both unvaccinated and
vaccinated air travelers to the country. For those who show proof of
full vaccination, that test must be conducted no more than three days before
the flight’s departure. For someone who cannot show such proof, the
test must be done no more than one day before departure. The new
policy would require everyone to be tested one day before departure.
In a statement issued late Tuesday night,
CDC said it is working to shorten the timeline for required testing for all
international air travelers to one day before departure to the United States.
The agency currently recommends travelers get an additional coronavirus test
three to five days after arrival and that unvaccinated travelers quarantine for a minimum of seven days.
Other key details were still being
ironed out Tuesday. It’s not clear when the new policy would take effect. But
given the urgency of limiting the spread of what might be a highly
transmissible variant, speed is considered essential. It’s possible the policy
could take effect in a week or two, according to one official.
During a White House covid briefing
Tuesday, CDC Director Rochelle Walensky said the agency was considering a range
of measures to protect Americans, including evaluating “how to make
international travel as safe as possible, including pre-departure testing
closer to the time of flight, and considerations around additional post-arrival
testing and self-quarantines.”
Celine Gounder, an epidemiologist
and infectious-diseases specialist who advised the Biden administration’s
transition team on the covid-19 response, applauded stricter testing. “If it
were up to me, to fly, you should be fully vaccinated and we should also be
testing 24 hours prior” to flight,” she said.
Under the policy laid out in the
public health order, travelers would be asked to self-attest that they would
get retested within three to five days of arrival. It’s not clear
whether travelers would be able to use self-administered rapid at-home
tests. Viral tests check specimens from a person’s nose or
mouth to find out if they are infected with the virus that causes covid-19.
The Justice Department also needs
to weigh in on whether officials can ask people to self-quarantine, whether
fines and penalties are enforceable, and if so, what those amounts should be,
the officials said.
As a practical matter, state and
local health departments are unlikely to be able to enforce requirements for
additional testing and any self-quarantines once travelers arrive
in the United States. More than 200,000 people arrived by plane daily in
November, a figure that does not include travel over the Thanksgiving holiday,
federal authorities said.
Even if only a quarter of those
travelers comply with the requirements, however, it would make a
difference by allowing for more prompt detection and isolation of at least some
infected people who might be able to spread the virus, said public health
experts.
“If you consider over 200,000
people a day [arriving in the United States], even 50,000 would help” determine
the extent of spread, one of the three federal health officials said in a text
message.
Janet Hamilton, executive director
of the Council of State and Territorial Epidemiologists, said that such measures
are “a critical step for reducing transmission of SARSCoV-2, whether we are
dealing with a newly emerging variant like Omicron or working to reduce
transmission of already circulating strains.”
Since the start of the pandemic,
different countries and territories have taken vastly different approaches
toward preventing the spread of the coronavirus, with countries like Australia
and China implementing some of the tightest border restrictions. China has
banned most foreign visitors, from tourists to students, from entering mainland
China. Those few who are allowed to enter, as well as returning Chinese
citizens, must undergo at least 14 days of strict quarantine, which can be
extended to up to 28 days by local authorities, often followed by another
lengthy period of home observation.
Since the discovery of omicron,
many countries that had loosened their border restrictions have tightened them
up again, including Britain, which said Friday that it was resurrecting its “red
list” with the additions of a number of southern African countries. British or
Irish citizens or permanent residents returning from a red-listed country must
quarantine for 10 days, regardless of vaccination status, United Kingdom
officials said. Citizens of other countries who have visited those countries
will not be able to enter the UK at all.
UK officials announced further
restrictions over the weekend, saying that anyone entering the country must now
quarantine until they receive the results of a PCR test taken on their second
day in the country. Anyone testing positive faces a 10-day quarantine.
