United will require passengers to wear masks at all 360 airports where the airline operates flights.
U.S. airlines, unions and some members of Congress, have expressed serious concerns that Biden may introduce new rules for mandatory virus testing. The White House said Friday (Feb. 12) that it does not intend to force people to be tested for the Covid-19 virus (the Chinese Communist virus) before boarding domestic flights.
In response, White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki said at a news conference on Friday, Reuters reported, “Reports of plans to implement new requirements, such as virus testing, are not accurate.”
Later on Friday, a spokeswoman for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said, “At this Time, the CDC is not recommending mandatory point-of-departure testing for domestic travel flights. ” She added that the CDC “will continue to review options for public health measures that could control and slow the spread of COVID-19 (Chinese Communist virus) in the travel sector.”
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention revealed last month that the agency is “actively considering” expanding mandatory COVID-19 virus testing to U.S. domestic flights.
In response, the chief executives of major U.S. airlines, including American Airlines, Southwest Airlines and United Airlines, met online with Jeff Zients, the White House emergency coordinator for the COVID-19 virus outbreak.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention began requiring Jan. 26 that nearly all international passengers over the age of 2 traveling to the U.S. must provide a negative test result for the COVID-19 virus or provide evidence of discharge from a hospital after recovering from the infection in order to board a flight.
White House and administration officials told Reuters this week that no formal order has been communicated and that officials do not expect to mandate that domestic flight passengers provide negative results of COVID-19 virus tests before boarding.
We had a very positive and constructive conversation focused on our shared commitment to science-based policies and working together to end this outbreak, restore air travel and lead our nation toward recovery.”
The White House held a separate interagency meeting on Friday to discuss other outbreak issues. And further talks are planned on other travel-related issues, including the possible expansion of mandatory testing for international flights to land border crossings.
The U.S. airline industry strongly opposed the implementation of mandatory virus testing on domestic flights ahead of talks between airline CEOs, Zantz and other government officials on the issue of CCP virus testing.
Southwest Airlines warned that such a requirement could put jobs at risk. A major U.S. airline union noted that it could cause airlines to go out of business.
One idea being seriously considered, according to government officials, is for the CDC to issue a new advisory advising people not to travel to specific areas with high rates of outbreak infection. Although these travel advisories are not binding.
The CDC has now published a broad recommendation discouraging people from canceling all nonessential air travel.
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