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New rules in response to Omicron variant

Andrew

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Starting this general topic: this story from the Washington Post is available for free:


Not yet announced, but it's reported that the U.S. is considering requiring people arriving from abroad, including vaccinated U.S. citizens, to be tested withing one day before a flight, and then have another test 3-5 days after arrival, and a 7-day quarantine. The latter two parts would be hard to enforce. One can wonder whether other countries will make similar rules.
 
In the UK they have brought back day 2 PCR tests for people entering the country. These had been changed to the cheaper lateral flow tests in October. Plus you now have to isolate until you get a negative result from the test.

They are talking about bringing back the pre-departure test which they stopped in September.
 
In the UK they have brought back day 2 PCR tests for people entering the country. These had been changed to the cheaper lateral flow tests in October. Plus you now have to isolate until you get a negative result from the test.

They are talking about bringing back the pre-departure test which they stopped in September.
Yes we are all pretending the Govt is on top of the restrictions whilst preparing ourselves for more !
 
The U.S. is having the testing requirement within one day of departure starting Dec. 6. Nothing said about the other reported changes (test after arrival and quarantine).
 
The CDC site has been updated overnight to show the new 1-day pre-flight testing, starting Dec 6 as Andrew says. As luck would have it, that's the day we are flying to the US!

Fortunately, the change from 3-day to 1-day testing had been heavily trailed prior to yesterday’s speech, so we did manage, yesterday morning, to rebook our 3rd Dec test to be done on 5th Dec (without any extra charge!).

Rather off topic query, but I'm sure Andrew will know the answer! Our direct LHR-Denver flights were cancelled by BA 10 days ago: they’re rerouting us via Chicago, with a 2hr35’ layover. Given that we have to change terminals (arriving T5, departing T3), is this uncomfortably tight? Will we have to go through immigration clearance at T5 before transferring? (Never done a flight transfer like this in the US, so feeling slightly anxious…)
 
Jonathan, I have flown through Chicago a few times and as long as your flight is not late that should be enough time. You go through immigration, then to a place where you collect your luggage and put it right back on another belt. You can eliminate this step if you travel with carryon.

Andrew probably transits O’Hare way more often though, so take his word over mine.
 
Yes, I think the published minimum connect time for international to domestic is 1 hr. 15, which I wouldn't like, but your time should be good with an on-time inbound flight. They recently reopened the train between T5 and the other terminals, which had been closed and replaced by a bus for a long time. I don't know if having a non-U.S. passport adds time these days.

In 2014 I was on a connection that was about 1:15, the departure from Vienna was a little late, but it made up most of the delay. At that time, there was a counter where passengers without checked bags could clear passport control and bypass the customs hall, but I understand that no longer operates. When I got to United's domestic terminal, I reprinted my boarding pass at the kiosk, and it gave me TSA PreCheck for fast clearance through security, which the pass that Austrian had given me for that segment did not. I don't know if you'll have a chance to get PreCheck. Anyway, I made the tight connection that time, but it helped that I had the fast track through passport control (and no checked bags) and security.
 
Thanks, Andrew & Shannon: useful info! It's not the most relaxed time to be travelling - and if it were just for a vacation, we'd certainly put it off to a later date. But we haven’t seen our family in the US for 27 months now; we, and they, are fully vaccinated and boosted, so we're packing right now!
 
The CDC's updated rules, including that the rule for testing is one calendar day rather than 24 hours, and the timing when having connecting flights:

 

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