All travelers arriving in the United States will be required to produce a negative coronavirus test that must be three days old. Passengers who fail to produce a negative coronavirus test to the airline before travel, will not be allowed boarding.

The new requirement was announced on Tuesday by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and will go into effect from the 26th January.

According to the agency, testing before and after travel is a critical layer to slow the introduction and spread of COVID-19. The strategy, the CDC said, is consistent with the current phase of the pandemic and “more efficiently protects the health of Americans.”

The CDC believes that with the US already in surge status, the testing requirement for air passengers will help slow the spread of the virus.

“Before departure to the United States, a required test, combined with the CDC recommendations to get tested again 3-5 days after arrival and stay home for 7 days post-travel, will help slow the spread of COVID-19 within US communities from travel-related infections. Pre-departure testing with results known and acted upon before travel begins will help identify infected travelers before they board airplanes”, the CDC statement said.

Under the new guidelines, Air passengers heading to the US are required to get a coronavirus PCR test within the 3 days before their flight to the U.S. departs, and provide written documentation of their laboratory test result (paper or electronic copy) to the airline or provide documentation of having recovered from COVID-19.

Airlines must confirm the negative test result for all passengers or documentation of recovery before they board. The CDC states that if a passenger does not provide documentation of a negative test or recovery, or chooses not to take a test, the airline must deny boarding to the passenger.

Guyana has daily flights to the United States with a number of airlines. Guyana has had the COVID-19 test requirement in place for arriving passengers for several months.

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