Share

Latest CDC Travel Guidelines |January 2023|

CDC Travel Guidelines – Americans are known to travel, and it is an essential part of the American lifestyle. Traveling is also one of the most popular recreational activities that can help you recover your mind setup from the fast-moving 21st-century lifestyle.

Since the start of COVID-19 in the United States, traveling has seen one of the biggest downfalls. After 3 years, the tour and travel industry is seeing a little bit of recovery in the market, and people have once again resumed their journeys.

The risk of COVID-19 has not gone anywhere yet, and a new variant of COVID-19 has already become the dominating variant in the United States. That is why it has become important for Americans to learn about the CDC travel guidelines to ensure their safety during their journey.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention of the United States have released a set of guidelines focusing on international and domestic travel to help Americans and ensure their safety during the tough times of COVID-19 and other viruses.

Latest Changes in CDC Travel Guidelines

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is known to keep changing its CDC travel guidelines to ensure the safety of Americans according to the latest circumstances. 

As you might already be aware, China, Hong Kong, and Macau are struggling with one of the biggest outbreaks of COVID-19 in their history. Keeping that in mind, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have made little change in CDC travel guidelines.

Every passenger above the age of 2 who is flying from China, Macau, or Hong Kong or has been in these areas in the past ten days and they are also flying from Seoul, Vancouver, or Toronto will have to present a COVID-negative test result taken no more than 2 days before boarding a flight to the United States regardless of their citizenship and vaccination status.

If you are traveling from China to Macau or Hong Kong or you have been in these countries in the last 10 days, and you have been traveling from Canada to Korea, then you have to present a COVID test result regardless of your vaccination status. 

This rule applies to everyone regardless of their citizenship and vaccination status. For more information, I highly recommend you consult the airline’s query counter at the airport before boarding a flight.

CDC Domestic Travel Guidelines

Domestic travel guidelines are the most important guidelines for Americans as most of us are going to travel domestically during the winter end festival season.

These guidelines are much more capable of preventing infection and ensuring your safety during travel. Even though these are just guidelines, they can prevent infection and ensure your safety. 

We highly recommend you follow them as a mandatory rule.

CDC Travel Guidelines
CDC Travel Guidelines

What to do before the trip starts?

There are several things you can do before you start to travel or even plan for the trip. All these things are capable of preventing infection and ensuring your safety regardless of the conditions.

  • First of all, you should get yourself vaccinated with an updated booster source of the COVID vaccine. Make sure you have already received the primary series of the COVID vaccine and the booster shot.
  • Kindly test yourself multiple times before you start the trip, as it can ensure the safety of your fellow travelers. 
  • Testing multiple times becomes important when you test yourself with the rapid antigen test, which is known to have an accuracy of just 80%.
  • Kindly keep wearing a high-quality mask whenever you are in public transport settings or traveling with unknown members. 
  • You can also check the COVID community levels before entering any state or county. 
  • At the same time, you should also make sure you understand and follow the local travel restrictions, including proper mask-wearing from proof of vaccination and proof of COVID testing.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention also suggest Americans, through its CDC domestic travel guidelines, plan for a flexible trip. You never know when you can get infected with a virus, and there are some restrictions on the movement. 

Your plan must be flexible enough to support any surprise changes. At the same time, people who have weakened immune systems or are at increased risk of severe illness should take multiple preventive steps to prevent the infection.

We highly recommend everyone keep consulting all the latest developments with their healthcare provider. Along with enjoyment, safety should be your top priority.

What to do during travel?

Once you have understood and prepared according to the before travel guidelines, now it is time for us to discuss the guidelines during the travel.

There is a high probability that you will get infected with COVID-19 during the trip, and it should be your top priority to prevent the infection under any circumstances.

  •  Everyone should keep wearing a high-quality mask whenever they are on public transport or traveling with unknown Travelers. 
  • Kindly do not remove your mask whenever you stop for rest during travel.
  • Kindly follow the complete protocol and ensure as much social distancing as possible to prevent infection during travel. 

Kindly try to follow all the state, local, tribal and terrestrial health recommendations of your destination. Every state, local and tribal government body holds the right to have its requirements.

What to do after traveling?

Along with the pre-travel guidelines, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention also has some guidelines once a person has already entered their journey. 

You might have ensured your safety before and during the travel, but it doesn’t mean that you are completely free to go anywhere you want after ending your journey. 

There are some things you should keep in mind once you have finished your journey. Post-travel guidelines can help you ensure the safety of your loved ones. 

  • After traveling, you should first get yourself tested with the viral test. People who have been to crowded places where they were not able to wear a high-quality mask are suggested to test themselves multiple times after ending their journey.
  • After traveling, you should also keep monitoring your symptoms associated with the infection. 
  • Kindly do not meet with anyone more vulnerable to developing a severe infection of the risk after ending your journey. Maintain a gap of at least 5 to 7 days.

If you are struggling with any symptoms associated with the infection, we highly recommend you consult your healthcare provider and follow all the isolation and quarantine guidelines. 

If you get tested before COVID-19, it is recommended that everyone should isolate themselves for at least 5 to 10 days till they can spend 24 hours fever free without using any fever-suppressing medicine.

Despite following the above-given guidelines, there is a high probability that you will get infected with the virus if you have been to any contagious place.

What to do if you have tested positive for a virus?

Now to make a big question: what if you get tested positive for the virus after traveling? There is a small probability that you can get infected with a virus even after following all the above given CDC travel guidelines.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have a set of guidelines to help Americans ensure the safety of their loved ones.

People who have tested positive for COVID-19 should follow the isolation and quarantine guidelines.

  • Everyone should be in isolation for 5 days as soon as they receive their positive test results. 
  • Keep monitoring your symptoms during the 5 days and end your Isolation after spending 24 hours fever free without using any fever-suppressing medicine. 
  • Keep wearing a high-quality mask even during your isolation whenever you are around others.
  • Kindly do not visit any public place where you are not able to keep wearing your high-quality mask.
  • At the same time, do not meet with anyone more vulnerable to developing the severe symptoms of the infection.

These are some of the things you can do once you have tested positive for COVID-19, even after traveling. Most people might not even require any medicines or medical assistance to recover from the infection, but we highly recommend you consult all treatment options with your healthcare provider.

[For More]

What are the latest changes in international CDC travel guidelines?

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention suggest everyone coming to the United States get their self vaccinated with the primary series of COVID vaccines and test themselves for COVID negative before boarding the flight. Regardless of your citizenship, you might have to present both documents at the time of immigration.