Speculation on US removing Covid testing requirements??

[Bayleaf25]

Transmitting through US in July, wondering if anyone has any inside information or thoughts on whether the US might relax their testing requirements for vaccinated travellers?

I know the travel industry is putting pressure on the government but there doesn’t seem to be any sign of change just yet.

*transiting!! Not transmitting

I've been reading up over recent days as we fly over to the us at the end of the month, but as yet there seems to be no rumours of it being relaxed even for vaccinated arrivals any time soon.

We live in hope… the whole thing is ridiculous. It only applies to air arrivals, not land or sea arrivals, but there have more “cases” of COVID on cruise ships than planes. We can also travel from state to state by plane with no tests do why the tests to come back into the country? Ludicrous.

We go in July too and I keep looking, I did see that at the end of last week all of the airlines and tourist attractions wrote a joint letter to the government asking them to remove the testing requirements so hopefully they will review it now.

We flying out in summer as well - waiting to see if I should book tests or not.

I've put this on 2 threads this morning already but I actually don't think they are enforcing it as such already, just the attestation.

We've just returned from a 12 day US trip and nobody looked at or cared that we'd done tests/recovery certs. BA told us not to bother with the verify app. The only actual thing we needed was the ESTA and the attestation - which has no links to your test certificate. Nobody asked to see them.

Theyare definitely still more 'covid-aware' than us when you get there and a lot of people are still weraonf masks. Having has it twice this year I've personally given up for now. We were asked to wear them once in 12 days, on the airport shuttle bus. No one cared about social distancing.

Really hope they drop it. I haven’t heard anything to suggest they are planning to though. We go in August.

We fly out of the county next week. I’m so confident the testing will be lifted soon that we haven’t even booked a test yet for our return to the US 2 weeks later. I don’t want to waste my money 😂

I've got to make the decision where and when to book before we fly in 29th May. Don't want to spend money on it unnecessarily, especially as it has to be a supervised/done for you test, but don't want to leave it to late to be able to get a testing slot.

Flying from Heathrow and no idea how busy the testing facilities at the airport will be.

Flying out end of July and so hope they drop this ridiculous requirement. The airlines are putting more pressure on the government to lift the requirement and the rumour floating on twitter was possibly by the end of May. Grant Shapps has been ‘encouraging’ the US to lift the requirement too and said last week that he is hopeful that they will in time for summer. I wonder if he already knows as this would get people’s hopes up and disappoint them now if it didn’t happen plus it ties in with being lifted end of May/start of June which is pretty much when summer starts.

I flew to NYC early May, I had been hoping the requirement would be dropped by then, but it wasn't and there had been lots of speculative articles suggesting it might be ending soon from April. So until something comes from the White House I wouldn't believe it.

I used the verifly app to hold together my attestation, test results, and vaccination records and this was not looked at once either on the UK side or US border control. I wouldn't bank on that being the typical experience however.

There is a bit of a surge in the USA currently, my dc's school has gone back to wearing masks and it isn't the only one.

I'm not pinning my hopes on it being dropped anytime soon unfortunately. The CDC are pushing for masks again and I think I read this week that they're recommending testing before / after domestic travel.
I really wish they would drop it, I'm in the US and haven't seen my family in the UK for 3 years now because I can't risk testing positive and not being able to get back home.

We fly on Sunday and have given in and booked our antigen tests for Saturday now.
Have downloaded the VeriFly app too so can take a look at that, although think it's too early to do it yet.

What’s the Attestation thing ? Is this new ? Last went in 2019, want to go back in 2023 🥳

We had to show proof of negative PCR tests within a day of our flight (current requirement) before getting on the plane to LA last week. It is up to the airlines to ensure that they don’t carry people who do not meet the destination country’s entry requirements or they get massive fines so although we flew from Sydney the same would apply from the UK. Someone who hadn’t done a test within the correct timeframe was refused boarding.

Dh and I both have our negative results back. Now awaiting DD's test, she had it done about 5 minutes ago elsewhere as had it done in her university town ahead of holiday tomorrow. I daren't pack until hers are back, just incase.

Had hoped for the requirement to be dropped as we are all fully vaccinated with boosters. But oh well. This last half hour of waiting feels stressful but glad we didn't wait til the airport to do it. At least if it is bad news we can cancel from home and not have to be stood in an airport finding out miles from home.

All being well we fly tomorrow. I'm assuming as it's American Airlines (booked via BA but it is now an AA plane) it might mean masks on flights.

Just on flight now.

VeriFLY took ages to accept the covid tests but finally came through - did at 6:30pm and they took an hour, 3.5 hour and 4.5 hours for the 3. Then could do online check in - wouldn't let us before.

VeriFLY was checked in the queue and at the counter for bag drop/check in.

Will update with whether checked in the IS.

So glad you all got the all clear!! Wishing you a safe journey and keep us updated!!

We've arrived and had no issues at all getting through Heathrow or through JFK. No one asked to see the forms in the US.

But it was checked at Heathrow at check in and meant not having to get all of our individual paperwork out. Just showed one phone and they flicked through the three green photographs rather than the 3 or 4 documents each.

Didn’t realise you had to do verifly before online check in (therefore Covid test before checking in online too). Need to organise my timings before we fly then, unless the testing requirements are removed by by July 🤞

It's not likely to be scrapped imo.

Covid levels are rising in many areas of the US right now. There's talk of reintroducing mandatory masks in the area where I live.

Verifly isn't mandatory. You can just take the paperwork with you and check in there. Which I assume lots of people must do as they weee going for tests at the airport. You have to allow a good 2-3 hours for Verifly approve the results too.

I like to be organised and didn't really want to risk getting positive results at the airport as we were driving a long way. So we got ours at our local smaller airport the day before where it wasn't busy. Took the stress out of it all on the day.

At no point after leaving Heathrow was any vaccination or covid test confirmation requested. Hotels and venues didn't need them. Likewise masks - not needed on the flight (America airlines booked via BA) or in either airport (Heathrow and JFK.) also weren't needed in public transport, in shops, hotels etc.

The only place we had to wear a mask was in the Harry Potter theatre show and the HP store too.

There were still signs up regarding mask wearing but most people weren't wearing them - probably at most 25% were wearing masks.

There were covid testing sites dotted around every street pretty much, offering free tests to all. So assume they are still having some issues with covid numbers in New York.

I'm off to NYC and then Florida in 55 days. Can't believe testing hasn't been scraped yet. It's ruining an exciting time for me as can't get motivated to do anything relating to my trip incase one of us tests positive.