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WASHINGTON: The United States, state governments and some foreign countries should replace airline passenger quarantines and travel bans with COVID-19 testing to travelers before departure and upon arrival, airline groups and Business.
They said the move would boost US international air travel, which is down 78 percent year-over-year over the most recent seven-day period, according to airline industry data.
The groups, which include the International Air Transport Association, Airlines for America, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, Airline Unions and the U.S. Travel Association, called on the Trump administration, the governors state and international partners “pursuing a driven approach to COVID-19 testing that would avoid the need for quarantines and travel bans so that the travel network can be safely reopened.”
The groups added that “travel quarantines are decimating our industry.”
Currently, 18 U.S. states have some form of quarantine for arriving travelers, the groups said. Last week, Hawaii began allowing airline passengers who tested negative for COVID-19 to avoid a mandatory two-week quarantine upon arrival.
The United States still has entry bans for almost all non-US citizens who were recently in China, the United Kingdom, Ireland, Brazil, Iran, and countries in the so-called European Schengen Borderless Area.
Almost all of Europe still bans most American travelers, while the UK allows Americans to visit, but requires a two-week quarantine upon arrival.
“Continued restrictions on international travel and different state and international quarantine policies are hampering the recovery of the US economy,” the letter added.
The Trump administration has been holding high-level discussions with countries such as the UK, Germany, Japan, Canada and Italy about the possibility of establishing “flight bubbles” that would allow travel or reduce quarantines if passengers accepted COVID-19 tests sooner. of the exit. and upon arrival.
Whether a quarantine would still be required is being debated, with some Trump administration health experts calling for a one-week quarantine, and what test would be used. The increase in coronavirus infections in some countries, such as the United States, represents an obstacle to lifting the restrictions.
(Reporting by David Shepardson; Editing by Cynthia Osterman)
