White House plans to tighten travel rules over Omicron threat

The Biden administration plans to tighten travel rules to combat the omicron variant of the coronavirus, by requiring all air travelers to the US to be tested within a day of their departure regardless of vaccination status, according to a person familiar with the matter. President Joe Biden plans to announce the new requirements on Thursday in a speech detailing his plan to contain the pandemic through the winter. Currently, vaccinated travelers must get tested within three days of boarding their flight to the US; under the change, that would be cut to one day. The US last week imposed travel restrictions that bar arrivals from foreign nationals who have been in any of eight southern African nations in the past 14 days. The administration hasn’t said how long those measures will be in place. The administration isn’t considering tightening rules on what type of test is required for entry to the US. The administration has only imposed requirements for rapid antigen tests, which may be less effective at detecting cases of the omicron variant. Earlier Tuesday, the CDC director, Rochelle Walensky, said the agency was looking into measures such as narrowing the testing window for travelers into the country and adding quarantine requirements in certain cases. The CDC, she added in a call with reporters, was also expanding surveillance programs at four major airports to test for Covid from specific international arrivals. “As we have done throughout the pandemic, CDC is evaluating how to make international travel as safe as possible,” she said on the call. <br/>