US lifts covid-19 test for arriving travelers

AFP- Washington – The United States will follow the lead of several European countries and lift the requirement for a covid-19 test for travelers arriving in the country by plane, the White House announced Friday.

According to a spokesman for the US presidency, Kevin Muñoz, who announced on his Twitter account the lifting of this requirement, the health authorities will continue “assessing the needs based on science and the context of circulation of the variants.”

The end of the obligation of that requirement will take effect on Sunday, according to US media.

Before the arrival of the Ómicron variant, the US health authorities had tightened the procedures to enter the country in December 2021.

Everyone over the age of two boarding a flight from abroad was required to submit a negative test less than one day before takeoff, regardless of their vaccination status.

Several other countries, especially in Europe, had already stopped requiring a pre-boarding test for international travelers.

Following a court decision, the mandatory use of a mask on public transport, particularly on airplanes, was also lifted in the United States in April.

The US currently registers more than 100,000 new cases of covid-19 per day, a figure that, according to experts, is lower than reality. The recent increase has been linked to subvariants of Omicron.

The lifting of the requirement is expected to add billions to the US economy as pent-up tourist demand returns.