Health Alert:  COVID Testing for Travel to the United States (November 1, 2021)

Effective November 8, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) will require all air passengers – two years or older – traveling to the United States to present a negative COVID viral test taken within a timeframe based on their vaccination status or present documentation of having recovered from COVID-19 in the last 90 days. All travelers are required to show the following before boarding a flight to the United States.

  • For fully vaccinated travelers: proof of vaccination* and a negative COVID test taken no more than three days prior to flight departure.
  • For travelers NOT fully vaccinated: a negative COVID test taken no more than one day before flight departure.

This requirement applies to all travelers two years of age and older**.  Although children under two are not required to be tested, the CDC recommends a pre-travel test whenever possible.  Passengers must be tested with a viral test – either an antigen test or a PCR test.  Both require a swab.  An antibody test (“rapid test”), which uses a blood sample, does NOT meet this requirement.

For foreign nationals, proof of vaccination will be required – with very limited exceptions – prior to departure to the United States. The presidential proclamation and CDC order include a very limited set of exceptions from the vaccination requirement for foreign nationals.

These include exceptions for children, certain COVID-19 vaccine clinical trial participants, those with rare medical contraindications to the vaccines, those who need to travel for emergency or humanitarian reasons, those who are traveling on non-tourist visas from countries with low-vaccine availability, members of the armed forces and their immediate families, airline crew, ship crew, and diplomats. Additional information regarding these exceptions can be found on the CDC website and on travel.state.gov.

* The CDC has determined that for the purposes of entry into the United States, vaccines accepted will include those FDA approved or authorized, as well as vaccines with an emergency use listing (EUL) from the World Health Organization (WHO).

** When traveling with fully vaccinated parents or guardians, children between the ages of 2 and 17 who are not fully vaccinated may board a flight with a COVID test taken within three days of travel.  When traveling unaccompanied, or if one or more of the parents or guardians accompanying the children are not fully vaccinated, the children must have a negative test taken no more than one day before departure.

Information about testing facilities in Honduras is available on the Embassy’s website:   https://hn.usembassy.gov/covid-19-information/ .

Additional information is available on the CDC website:  https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/travelers/testing-international-air-travelers.html

 

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