CDC to require negative COVID-19 test for travelers coming into U.S. from China

Here's why Southwest Airlines has canceled flights nationwide

Employees of Southwest Airlines are partially blaming their outdated system for the thousands of delayed flights and cancellations nationwide.

The CDC announced Wednesday that it will implement a requirement of a negative COVID-19 test for people traveling to the U.S. from China and the Special Administrative Regions of Hong Kong and Macau. 

Beginning on Jan. 5, all air passengers two years and older coming from China will be required to get a PCR test or an antigen self-test no more than two days before their departure from China, Hong Kong, or Macau. Passengers will also have to show a negative test result to the airline upon departure. 

The requirement extends to all passengers regardless of vaccination status or nationality, the CDC said. 

The decision was made to slow the spread of COVID-19 in the United States during the surge in COVID-19 cases in China given the "lack of adequate and transparent epidemiological and viral genomic sequence data being reported from the PRC."

The CDC said variants of the SARS-CoV-2 virus continue to emerge in countries around the world, but "reduced testing and case reporting in the PRC and minimal sharing of viral genomic sequence data could delay the identification of new variants of concern if they arise."

Pre-departure testing and the requirement to show a negative test result has shown to decrease the number of infected passengers boarding airplanes and will help slow the spread of the virus, according to the CDC. 

The CDC has not announced when the negative test requirement will end.