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US Considering COVID Testing Rule for Domestic Flights
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With most international travel now requiring proof of a negative COVID-19 test before traveling, could testing requirements be coming to domestic air travel?
According to CNN the answer is “possibly.”
In a report from CNN, the Biden administration is “considering” a rule that would require a negative COVID-19 test for domestic air travel.
“There’s an active conversation with the CDC right now,” CNN reports Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg as telling Axios on HBO during an interview. “What I can tell you is, it’s going to be guided by data, by science, by medicine, and by the input of the people who are actually going to have to carry this out.”
Buttigieg told CNN the CDC is “looking at all its options” regarding domestic air travel and keeping Americans safe from the virus.
“What we know is that it’s the appropriate measure for international travel, people traveling into the US given some of those considerations. You know I’d say the domestic picture is very different, but you know the CDC is always evaluating what can best be done to keep Americans safe,” Buttigieg said.
According to CNN, a domestic air travel ruling is likely to encounter pushback from US airlines, with Delta’s CEO Ed Bastian calling it “a horrible idea.”
“It will not keep domestic fliers safer,” Bastian told CNN. “If anything, it’s going to keep people away from what they need to do in terms of starting to get back out for not just essential travel, but people need to start reclaiming their lives.”
