Biden's Executive Order on International Travel Explained
Gabriela Ungo • January 21, 2021
Today, President Biden issued an Executive Order promoting safety travel on Domestic and International Flights
On January 21, 2021, President Joe Biden signed an Executive Order requiring a mask mandate on domestic and international flights and other means of transportation such as trains and buses.
As previously reported, the Center for Disease Control (CDC) ordered on January 12, 2021, that all international travelers entering the United States provide a negative COVID-19 test no more than 3 days before flight departure beginning on
January 26, 2021.
Today's Executive Order asks CDC, in coordination with the the Department of Homeland Security and Secretary of Transportation, to assess the DCD order issued on January 12, 2021, and by February 4, 2021, "take any further appropriate regulatory action, to the extent feasible and consistent with CDC guidelines and applicable law."
Further actions could include:
(A) the timing and types of COVID-19 tests
that should satisfy the negative test requirement, including consideration of additional testing immediately prior to departure;
(B) the proof of test results that travelers should be required to provide;
(C) the feasibility of implementing alternative and sufficiently protective public health measures, such as testing, self-quarantine, and self-isolation on arrival, for travelers entering the United States from countries where COVID-19 tests are inaccessible, particularly where such inaccessibility of tests would affect the ability of United States citizens and lawful permanent residents to return to the United States; and
(D) measures to prevent fraud
This Executive Order does not mandate international travelers entering the U.S. to quarantine at this moment.
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