The Center for Disease Control (CDC) announced that all individuals two years or older who are traveling to the United States via air travel, regardless of vaccination status or citizenship, will be required to take a COVID-19 viral test and show a negative result to the airline, no more than one day before boarding a flight. This new requirement went into effect on December 6, 2021, at 12:01 am (ET). Those who recently recovered from COVID-19 may instead travel with documentation of their recovery, alongside a letter from a licensed healthcare provider or public health official stating that they are cleared for travel. The positive COVID test result should be from a sample taken no more than 90 days before the flight’s departure to the United States. Air passengers will also be required to confirm in the form of an attestation that the information they present is true.

Background. On October 25, 2021, President Biden issued Presidential Proclamation 10294 rescinding the geographic COVID-19 travel bans and adopting COVID-19 vaccination requirements for all international air travelers to the United States. The White House and agencies such as the Department of State and the CDC have issued guidance concerning the implementation of the new travel requirements. That said, just a few weeks ago on November 26, 2021, the White House issued a proclamation suspending and limiting the entry for certain immigrants and nonimmigrants who were physically present in countries where the Omicron variant of COVID-19 has been detected (“Omicron Travel Ban”). The countries subject to this new Omicron Travel Ban include: the Republic of Botswana, the Kingdom of Eswatini, the Kingdom of Lesotho, the Republic of Malawi, the Republic of Mozambique, the Republic of Namibia, the Republic of South Africa, and the Republic of Zimbabwe.  This Omicron Travel Ban went into effect at 12:01 am (ET) on November 29, 2021.