NEWS
Airlines Ask White House to Implement COVID-19 Travel Passports
Source: Reuters
In an effort to boost the travel industry, airlines and business groups are asking the Biden administration to develop standardized COVID-19 “passports” showing travelers have been tested and vaccinated for the coronavirus.
According to the Associated Press, airlines are hoping vaccinations will see people traveling once again and see vaccine passports as a way to jumpstart international flights.
“The U.S. must be a leader in this development,” the groups wrote in a letter to COVID-19 Recovery Team Coordinator Jeff Zients on Monday. “The current diverse and fragmented digital health credentials used to implement different countries’ air travel testing requirements risk causing confusion, reducing compliance, and increasing fraud.”
Whilst the groups don’t want COVID-19 vaccines made mandatory for travel, according to ABC they hope a “standardized digital health pass will allow travelers to avoid restrictive quarantine requirements.”
Currently, the CDC says even those who have already been vaccinated should still avoid traveling.
“In terms of travel, here’s what we know: Every time that there’s a surge in travel, we have a surge in cases in this country,” CDC Director Rochelle Walensky said in a statement reported by the Associated Press. “We know that many of our variants have emerged from international places, and we know that the travel corridor is a place where people are mixing a lot.”
