Citing the guidance of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the Biden Administration has extended the public transportation mask mandate until April 18.
With U.S. travelers now having been required to wear masks for over a year, the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) recently announced the mandate will stay in place for at least weeks past an originally targeted March 18 expiration date. According to a CDC press release, officials at the government agency formally made the recommendation to the TSA earlier this month.
“TSA’s collaboration with industry and federal partners has been instrumental throughout this pandemic, and now we are seeing a light at the end of the tunnel as demonstrated by the rapid recovery of the travel industry,” authorities said in the release.
Also this month, top executives from many of the country’s largest airlines penned a letter to President Joe Biden calling on the administration to invalidate all COVID-19 air travel restrictions, largely on the grounds that vaccination rates have greatly increased since the pandemic first hit here in the U.S. Among the airlines signing off on the letter were Delta, American, United, Southwest and JetBlue.
In addition, group members stressed that the burden of enforcing the mask mandate has fallen on their employees and said, "This is not a function they are trained to perform and subjects them to daily challenges by frustrated customers. This in turn takes a toll on their own well-being.”
CDC officials now say they instead plan to spend the next month closely working with government agencies “to help inform a revised policy framework for when, and what circumstances, masks should be required in the public transportation sector science.”
With Biden flexing his executive order muscle, the CDC first announced its federal mask mandate for all U.S. travelers on Jan. 30, 2021, stipulating that all travelers wear masks into, within or out of the United States on airplanes, ships, ferries, trains, subways, buses, taxis and ride-shares, effective Feb. 2, 2021.
As of Nov. 8, 2021, all non-U.S. citizens and non-U.S. immigrants were required to be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 in order to travel to the United States. In addition, fully-vaccinated passengers were required to provide a negative test no more than three days before the flight’s departure from a foreign country, in addition to showing proof of vaccination.
“TSA’s collaboration with industry and federal partners has been instrumental throughout this pandemic, and now we are seeing a light at the end of the tunnel as demonstrated by the rapid recovery of the travel industry,” TSA Administrator David Pekoske said in a news release. Pekoske said the agency was more than ready for the ongoing spring break season, where the number of travelers is expected to surpass 90% of pre-pandemic levels for the duration of March.
Since early on in the new year, the Department of Homeland Security has required that non-U.S. individuals seeking to enter the country via land ports of entry and ferry terminals at the U.S.-Mexico and U.S.-Canada borders to be fully vaccinated for COVID-19 and provide related proof of vaccination, due to rising coronavirus cases nationwide. These new restrictions will apply to non-U.S. individuals who are traveling for both essential and non-essential reasons.
