All Britons travelling to US from Monday must have negative Covid test
Britons travelling to the United States must have tested negative for Covid-19 in the past 72 hours amid fears of a new mutation of the virus that is spreading around the UK.
The announcement on Thursday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) came just 48 hours after the Trump administration told American airlines that it was not planning to require testing for UK passengers.
From Monday Dec 28, Britons must have received a PCR or antigen test in the three days before their flight to the US and must provide written documentation of the test result, the CDC said.
"This additional testing requirement will fortify our protection of the American public to improve their health and safety and ensure responsible international travel," the agency said in a statement.
The new variant of the coronavirus that has been identified in England – and which appears to be up to 70 per cent more transmissible that prior dominant strains – has provoked a host of countries to implement measures that prevent Britons from crossing their borders.
Over 50 countries have banned flights to or from the UK, including the Netherlands, India and Canada, while lorry drivers have spent days stranded in Kent because the French government will not allow them to cross the Channel without a negative test.
The Office for National Statistics (ONS) said on Thursday that as many as half of all recently diagnosed cases could be the new, more infectious variant of coronavirus.
Forty-nine per cent of infections in England between Dec 14 and 18 were believed to be this strain, and in London that figure was above 68 per cent.
A second new strain of the virus, first identified in South Africa, has been detected in the UK and is considered even more transmissible.
Unless they have an exemption, most Britons cannot enter the US if they have been in the UK in the past 14 days, following an order issued by President Trump in March. According to the CDC, this order has has cut air travel from Britain to the US by 90 per cent.
Before the new strain was identified in the UK, the White House was understood to have been close to lifting the ban on British travellers.
Last week, industry and aviation sources told The Telegraph that the Department of Homeland Security had recommended to President Trump that the ban be removed, but the spread of the new variant seems likely to have halted this plan.
Read more: What is the new Covid variant, and could it hamper a vaccine?
