US considers COVID testing requirement for domestic air travel to 'decrease the spread'

Amid the rising cases of coronavirus, the Biden administration is considering a rule that would require negative COVID test results for domestic travel. In a television interview with HBO, Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg mentioned the possible testing requirement for air travellers within the US and added that there’s an active conversation with the CDC right now regarding the same. Buttigieg also added that the measure is going to be guided by data, by science, by medicine and by the input of the people who are actually going to have to carry this out. 

Dr. Rochelle Walensky, director of the US CDC, in a separate statement, had also said that screening travellers for COVID-19 could be helpful. However, she did not expand upon whether there are plans to test domestic travellers. During a White House briefing on Monday, Walensky firstly suggested people not to travel. But she also added that if one is travelling, the COVID testing would be yet another mitigation measure to try and decrease the spread. 

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Concern regarding mandatory testing 

The United States already require negative COVID-19 tests for international travellers, US citizens and residents entering the country. The US Travel Association had hailed the rule for inbound travellers as “key to reopening international travel”, however, the group does not support a testing requirement for domestic air travellers. According to CNN, the group called mandatory testing for domestic travellers “impractical” and further noted that there aren’t defined ports of entry and that such a measure could divert scarce public health resources away from other priorities. 

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Apart from the Travel Association, industry body Airlines for America has also expressed concern about the possible testing requirement for domestic air travel. The organisation highlighted the risk-based measures to stemming COVID-19 transmission that the industry had adopted and research showing that the risk of in-flight infection low. In a letter to the White House, the organisation said that given the strong scientific evidence that the risk of transmission on board an aircraft is very low, the officials believe that a testing requirement for domestic air travel is “unwarranted”. 

Meanwhile, it is worth mentioning that the United States is the worst-hit country due to the virus with over 27 million infected cases and nearly 465,000 deaths so far. Amid the surge in infections, last week, chief medical advisor to President Joe Biden, Dr. Anthony Fauci had even warned that the UK strain of the novel coronavirus will become more dominant in the US by the middle of the spring. He added that it is not clear yet if the South African coronavirus strain will eventually dominate in the US. It is, however, considered to be more infectious than the original strain. 

(Image: AP) 

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