US to require negative Covid test from UK travellers amid new variant fears

The US government will require all airline passengers arriving from the United Kingdom to test negative for Covid-19 within 72 hours of departure starting Monday amid concerns about a new coronavirus variant that may be more transmissible.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said in a statement that all airline passengers arriving from the UK must test negative in order to fly to the US. The decision was a U-turn after the Trump administration told US airlines on Tuesday it was not planning to require any testing for arriving UK passengers.

The decision follows the emergence of a highly infectious new coronavirus variant in Britain that has prompted many countries to shut their borders to travellers from there.