Biden administration considers tightening international travel requirements

A White House official said on Tuesday that the Biden administration is considering tightening requirements for international travel due to growing concerns about the omicron variant of the coronaviruses.

The administration is continuing to evaluate the measures to protect the American people from Covid-19 and the new variant, including considering more stringent testing requirements for international travel. The official stated that policy discussions are ongoing across the government and no final decisions have been made.

The discussion comes on the heels of the federal government restricting travel for non-U. S. citizens from South Africa and seven other countries are trying to contain the variant. There were first reported cases in South Africa and have since surfaced in other countries, including Belgium, Canada and Israel.

As we have done throughout the pandemic, CDC is 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, Rochelle Walensky, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, told reporters on Tuesday.

Infectious disease experts said that the administration's recent travel ban on countries in southern Africa should have gone further if the U.S. wanted to slow the spread of the variant. Biden announced the ban on Friday but the restriction didn't go into effect until Monday and provided an exemption for U.S. citizens and permanent residents along with their family members.

At least 20 other countries, including Canada, Ireland and the U.K., have banned all non-citizens arriving from southern Africa and required quarantines for their citizens and permanent residents coming from the region. For example, in the Netherlands, anyone coming into the country who has been in southern Africa must be quarantined at a government-selected hotel.

President Joe Biden called the variant a cause for concern, not a cause for panic. On Thursday, Biden is expected to lay out his administration's plan for combating Covid 19 this winter.

Walensky said the CDC is expanding the program with XpresCheck at airports in Atlanta, New York, San Francisco and Newark, N.J. that would allow increased Covid 19 testing for specific international arrivals. The CDC collected passenger information from airlines that could be used for contact tracing earlier this month.

According to Jeffery Zients, White House Covid coordinator, "We are working around the clock to make sure we understand this new variant and continue on our path out of the pandemic."