WASHINGTON – A coalition of airlines and companies in the tourism sector asked the United States Government this Wednesday to eliminate COVID-19 tests for vaccinated passengers who want to enter the country, questioning their usefulness and ensuring that they harm tourism. international.
In a letter addressed to the White House coordinator for the response to the coronavirus, Jeff Zients, the airlines demanded that the current requirement to present a negative test for COVID-19 carried out one day before traveling to the United States be abolished.
“Surveys carried out on air passengers indicate that the tests are a determining factor when giving up traveling internationally. People are simply not willing to take the risk of not being able to return to the United States,” they indicated in the letter to the Government.
From the airlines they assured that the high vaccination rate and the greater immunity developed by a large part of the population to COVID-19 justify the elimination of the measure, which would help the economic recovery of the tourism and travel industry in the US.
Among the signatories of the letter is Airlines for America, an association that brings together airlines such as American Airlines, Delta Air Lines and United Airlines Holdings.
On Monday, the United States government placed Mexico, Brazil, Chile and nine other countries and territories in category 4 of coronavirus transmission , defined as “very high” risk, before advising its citizens not to travel to those countries.
In addition to Mexico, Chile and Brazil, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) also included Ecuador, Paraguay, the Philippines, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Singapore, Moldova, Kosovo, Anguilla and French Guiana.
The US is the country hardest hit by the COVID-19 pandemic, with more than 75 million cases and 890,000 deaths.