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Monday, February 17, 2025

Flying to the United States soon? Here’s what you need to know about the new COVID testing rules

by

BRENT PINHEIRO
1170 days ago
20211205
Photo by Shamia Casiano from Pexels.

Photo by Shamia Casiano from Pexels.

BRENT PIN­HEIRO
brent.pin­heiro@guardian.co.tt

 

Last Fri­day, US Pres­i­dent Joe Biden an­nounced new trav­el rules for all for­eign­ers en­ter­ing the Unit­ed States. In a bid to slow the spread of the Omi­cron vari­ant, trav­ellers now have to take a pre-de­par­ture COVID-19 test no more than one day be­fore trav­el. Pre­vi­ous­ly, trav­ellers had to take a test three days be­fore trav­el. If you’re trav­el­ling in the weeks ahead, here’s what you need to know. 

 

When do the new rules come in­to force? 

 

From 1:01 am T&T time to­mor­row, all non-US air pas­sen­gers two years and old­er are re­quired to show a neg­a­tive COVID-19 test re­gard­less of vac­ci­na­tion sta­tus or na­tion­al­i­ty. If you re­cent­ly re­cov­ered from COVID in the 90 days be­fore your flight, no test is re­quired. In­stead, you’ll have to show proof of a pos­i­tive COVID-19 vi­ral test re­sult and a let­ter from a li­censed health­care provider or a pub­lic health of­fi­cial stat­ing that you're cleared for trav­el. Chil­dren un­der two years of age al­so do not need to pro­vide a test.

Re­mem­ber, on­ly ful­ly vac­ci­nat­ed trav­ellers are al­lowed en­try in­to the Unit­ed States, un­less ex­empt.

 

Which tests are ac­cept­ed?

 

Both rapid anti­gen and PCR tests are ac­cept­ed for trav­el to the US. The test you will need de­pends on your trav­el plans. The gen­er­al rule of thumb is if you are on a non­stop flight from T&T to a US des­ti­na­tion, you can take an anti­gen test. If your flight in­cludes a con­nec­tion, you may need a PCR test de­pend­ing on which coun­try the flight is con­nect­ing through. And no, it doesn’t mat­ter if you’re not com­ing off the plane, if you have the wrong test, you will be de­nied board­ing. Con­tact your air­line be­fore­hand if you need clar­i­fi­ca­tion.

 

How much does a test cost?

 

Anti­gen tests start at $300TT with re­sults avail­able in as lit­tle as 15 min­utes. PCR tests start at $900TT and usu­al­ly take 24-48 hours to get re­sults. De­pend­ing on the lab, re­sults can come in quick­er. There some­times is the op­tion to pay for ex­pe­dit­ed test re­sults, ask your provider if this is an op­tion. Re­mem­ber to print out your re­sults if they came by email. 

There are sev­er­al Min­istry of Health ac­cred­it­ed labs of­fer­ing COVID-19 test­ing for trav­el. Here are a few:

Vic­to­ria Lab­o­ra­to­ries Lim­it­ed

Rapid Anti­gen - $300 (re­sults in 2-3 hrs), RT-PCR - $1,000 (re­sults in 24 hrs)

Lo­ca­tions: San Fer­nan­do, Port of Spain, Ch­agua­nas, Point Fortin, Princes Town, Cou­va, Curepe, Mar­aval, and Crown Point

Con­tact: 320-4289 / 308-3433

 

Med­ical As­so­ciates

Rapid Anti­gen - $550 (re­sults in 15 mins), RT-PCR - $900 (re­sults in 24 hrs)

Lo­ca­tion: St. Joseph

Con­tact: 704-2075 or book an ap­point­ment here

 

St Clair Med­ical Cen­tre

Rapid Anti­gen - $550 (re­sults in 20 mins), RT-PCR - $1,650 (re­sults in 24 hrs)

Lo­ca­tion: St. Clair, POS

Con­tact: 622-5514

 

Maitri Di­ag­nos­tics TT Ltd

Rapid Anti­gen - $400, RT-PCR - $900 (re­sults in 8-12 hrs)

Lo­ca­tions: El So­cor­ro and Port of Spain

Con­tact: 680- TEST(8378)/678- TEST(8378)

 

What does one day be­fore mean?

 

Ac­cord­ing to the CDC, the one-day pe­ri­od is one day be­fore the flight’s de­par­ture and not 24 hours be­fore. For ex­am­ple, if your flight is at 3 pm on a Sat­ur­day, you could board with a neg­a­tive test tak­en any time the Fri­day be­fore. This of­fers trav­ellers flex­i­bil­i­ty, es­pe­cial­ly, when chang­ing time zones. 

 

Will I have to quar­an­tine?

 

No. At this mo­ment, there is no post-trav­el quar­an­tine re­quire­ment. How­ev­er, the CDC rec­om­mends that all trav­ellers get a COVID-19 vi­ral test 3-5 days af­ter trav­el and mon­i­tor for any COVID-19 symp­toms. If you de­vel­op any symp­toms, iso­late and get test­ed. Re­mem­ber be­ing ful­ly vac­ci­nat­ed doesn’t mean you are im­mune from catch­ing COVID-19.

 

Are masks still re­quired on flights?

 

Yes, masks are to be worn on board all flights un­less eat­ing or drink­ing. Sev­er­al peo­ple have tried to break this rule, on­ly to find them­selves on the no-fly list. Un­less you want to see your face plas­tered all over the in­ter­net with some dude in the back­ground shout­ing ‘World­star!’ (IYKYK), keep your mask on. Plus, you can be fined US$500-$3000, so there’s that.

Al­so, bear in mind that most air­lines no longer block the mid­dle seat which means there is no so­cial dis­tanc­ing on board un­less, by some mir­a­cle, the flight hap­pens to be some­what emp­ty or you pay for an ex­tra seat.

As al­ways, check your des­ti­na­tion’s en­try re­quire­ments as well as your air­line’s poli­cies be­fore head­ing to the air­port. I find the Sher­pa tool quite use­ful when I’m plan­ning trips.

transportationCOVID-19United StatesAirport


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