Reuters reports that the U.S. Travel Association is urging President Joe Biden “to lift COVID-19 travel restrictions and repeal a mandate requiring masks on airplanes and in other transit modes by April 18.”
The news outlet says it has seen a letter from the group to Dr. Ashish Jha, the incoming White House COVID response coordinator, that calls for an immediate end to the pre-departure testing requirement for all fully vaccinated inbound international persons and ending the mask mandate by April 18 “or announcing a plan and timeline to repeal the federal mask mandate within the subsequent 90 days.”
“It makes little sense to keep the pre-departure testing requirement in place for inbound air travelers when the U.S. government does not require negative tests at U.S-Canada and U.S.-Mexico land border points of entry,” wrote U.S. Travel Chief Executive Roger Dow.
U.S. residents and others who fly to the United States must present a negative result from a COVID-19 test taken within one day of their travel.
Reports say the travel association also is pushing the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to stop using “avoid travel” warnings on its website.
The CDC website lists roughly 120 countries as being at level four in their warning system, which indicates a “very high” level of COVID-19. That includes Canada. The CDC website shows the Canadian entry hasn’t been updated since January 10, 202, which is well over two months ago.
The Justin Trudeau government in Ottawa recently announced that, as of April 1, fully vaccinated travellers coming into Canada will not need to present a negative COVID-19 test result. They still, however, must fill out their ArriveCAN app information prior to their arrival in Canada.
