US will require COVID-19 testing for travelers from China, major cruise line follows suit
Virus surging back in China?
Vaccinations:China urges elderly to get COVID jab
Beginning Jan. 5, all travelers to the U.S. from China will be required to take a COVID-19 test no more than two days before travel and provide a negative test before boarding their flight. The testing applies to anyone 2 years and older.
Other countries have taken similar steps in an effort to keep infections from spreading beyond China’s borders. Japan is requiring a negative COVID-19 test upon arrival for travelers from China, and Malaysia announced new tracking and surveillance measures. India, South Korea and Taiwan are requiring virus tests for visitors from China.
Lunar New Year, which begins Jan. 22, is usually China’s busiest travel season, and China announced last week it will resume issuing passports for tourism for the first time since the start of the pandemic in 2020.
The U.S. action is a return to requirements for some international travelers. The Biden administration lifted the last of such mandates in June. At that time, the CDC continued to recommend that people boarding flights to the U.S. get tested close to departure time and not travel if they are sick.
Early in the pandemic, the U.S. barred entry to foreigners traveling from China, weeks after the virus first emerged there three years ago. Americans were allowed to return home and flights from China were funneled to selected airports where passengers were screened for illness.
But the virus was already spreading in the U.S. among people with no travel history.
Major cruise line brings back COVID-19 requirements
Norwegian Cruise Line also said it will implement mandatory pre-cruise COVID testing for passengers who have been in mainland China, Hong Kong or Macau within 10 days of their sailing.
“The health, safety and well-being of our guests, crew and communities we visit is our number one priority,” a spokesperson for the line’s parent company, Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings Ltd., told USA TODAY in an email. “As a result of growing concerns regarding COVID-19 in China, and recently implemented travel restrictions by several countries including the United States, we are proactively implementing preventative health and safety measures for all sailings embarking between Jan. 5 – Jan. 31, 2023.”
Cruise lines dropped COVID-19 rules:How did that affect cases? We got numbers from the CDC
I measured CO2 levels on a plane:It showed me when I was most likely exposed to COVID
Impacted passengers must show proof of a negative PCR test taken within 48 hours before boarding, and take a PCR test at the embarkation port. They will also need to test every 48 hours on board the ship “until at least 10 days have passed from their last time in these regions,” the spokesperson said.
dropped all remaining testing, vaccine and mask rules in October, though the changes were subject to rules at various destinations.
Contributing: Carla K. Johnson, The Associated Press