Federal health officials are requiring airlines to gather contact-tracing information on passengers heading to the US who have been in southern Africa in the previous two weeks.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Wednesday that it issued the latest requirement “to prevent the importation and spread of a communicable disease of public health importance.”
The directive follows President Joe Biden’s order that bars most foreign nationals from entering the US if they have been in southern Africa, where the omicron variant of Covid-19 was first reported. The ban does not apply to American citizens or permanent US residents who have been in those countries, although they must show evidence of a negative test for Covid-19.
