Passengers will be required to have a PCR or negative antigen test within 72 hours of boarding the plane from the UK to the US. Passengers are also required to provide documentation of their lab results, either in paper or electronic form.
Airlines are required to confirm test results prior to the flight, and passengers will not be permitted to board the plane if they refuse the test or do not provide documentation.
“On March 14, President Trump issued a presidential announcement suspending entry to foreign nationals who have visited the United Kingdom during the past 14 days,” the CDC said in a statement. “This has reduced air travel to the United States from the United Kingdom by nearly 90%. This additional testing requirement will enhance our protection for the American public to improve their health and safety and ensure responsible international travel.”
The agency said the order will be signed on Friday and will take effect on Monday.
The CDC said, Tuesday, that the coronavirus variant had not been identified in the United Kingdom through genetic sequencing efforts in the United States. But it may be because the US surveillance system was unable to detect it.
“It may be in the United States and we may not discover it yet,” Assistant Health Secretary Admiral Brett Gerwier said on Monday.
Fauci says the estimate of herd immunity might be higher
More than a million people in the United States have received their first dose of the Covid-19 vaccine in the past 10 days. But hundreds of millions more will need to be vaccinated to reach herd immunity and ultimately stop the virus from spreading.
“This is a pure estimate,” Fauci said. “I don’t want anyone to be crazy about this. These are all estimates.”
This maximum estimate is higher than Fauci’s previous estimate that 70-75% of the population needs to be vaccinated.
Several factors go into estimating the percentage of the population that needs to be vaccinated to achieve herd immunity, including the rate of virus spread and the effectiveness of the vaccine.
Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said his estimate “has evolved for no good reason”. He said he provided his latest estimate after deeming a 90% vaccination rate necessary to control the spread of measles.
“I derive from measles, which has a vaccine that is 98% effective,” Fauci said. “But (measles) is an amazingly transmissible disease – even more transmissible” than the new coronavirus.
Moderna and Pfizer vaccines are 95% effective against Coronavirus.
“(With regard to) the issue of auditory immunity, there is always a debate about 60-70 percent,” Shaheen said. “But if the virus becomes more effective in infecting people, we may even need a high vaccination rate to ensure that normal life continues without interruption.”
“But 60-70 percent of the vaccination rate will change the situation significantly,” Shaheen added. “It’s not that we have to deal with virus outbreaks if the virus becomes more effective, but it still provides a fairly normal life.”
CNN’s Fred Pletgen and Mary Ilyushina contributed to this report.
