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President Biden Signs Order Mandating Testing & Quarantine For U.S. Entry
Before his presidency began, Joe Biden announced a plan to regulate masks on planes, trains and buses. Mere hours after his inauguration and while announcing his COVID-19 crisis plan, the president signed an executive order mandating masks for air travelers.
“In light of the new COVID-19 variants that we’re learning about, we are instituting now a new measure for individuals flying into the United States from other countries,” President Biden said in a statement.
In addition to following the mask mandate, the order also requires all travelers flying into the United States from another country (United States citizens included), to test negative before they depart their destination and re-test and quarantine when they arrive.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention had already introduced a plan to mandate masks and testing before re-entry beginning Jan. 26, but the added quarantine would be a new restriction.
Biden did not specify how long travelers would have to quarantine or how it would be enforced. The CDC had recently advised for a 10 to 14-day seclusion period.