Korona - USA tillater innenriksflyginger uten restriksjoner for personer som er "fully vaccinated" - Aviation24.be / Curt Lewis

 Dette har positiv effekt for flygere som er permitterte, eller sågar nye flygere som var under trening da Korona slo til. Sjekk nederst i denne artikkelen. (Red.)

Fully vaccinated people can fly in US without tests or quarantine, says CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention)

By

 André Orban

 -

4 April 2021


CDC issues updated guidance on travel for fully vaccinated people

Vials of the COVID-19 vaccine are seen at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, Bethesda, Md., Dec. 14, 2020.

Today (April 2, 2021), the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) updated its travel guidance for fully vaccinated people to reflect the latest evidence and science. Given recent studies evaluating the real-world effects of vaccination, CDC recommends that fully vaccinated people can travel at low risk to themselves. A person is considered fully vaccinated two weeks after receiving the last recommended dose of vaccine.

Fully vaccinated people can travel within the United States and do not need COVID-19 testing or post-travel self-quarantine as long as they continue to take COVID-19 precautions while travelling – wearing a mask, avoiding crowds, socially distancing, and washing hands frequently.

“With millions of Americans getting vaccinated every day, it is important to update the public on the latest science about what fully vaccinated people can do safely, now including guidance on safe travel,” said CDC Director Dr Rochelle Walensky.  “We continue to encourage every American to get vaccinated as soon as it’s their turn, so we can begin to safely take steps back to our everyday lives. Vaccines can help us return to the things we love about life, so we encourage every American to get vaccinated as soon as they have the opportunity.”

Because of the potential introduction and spread of new SARS-CoV-2 variants, differences in disease burden and vaccines, and vaccine coverage around the world, CDC is providing the following guidance related to international travel:

• Fully vaccinated people can travel internationally without getting a COVID-19 test before travel unless it is required by the international destination.
• Fully vaccinated people do not need to self-quarantine after returning to the United States unless required by a state or local jurisdiction.
• Fully vaccinated people must still have a negative COVID-19 test result before they board a flight to the United States and get a COVID-19 test 3 to 5 days after returning from international travel.
• Fully vaccinated people should continue to take COVID-19 precautions while travelling internationally.

Vials containing the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine sit on a table in preparation for vaccinations at Kadena Air Base, Japan, Jan. 4, 2021. As part of the DoD strategy for prioritizing, distributing and administering the COVID-19 vaccine, those providing direct medical care and emergency services will be prioritized to receive the vaccine at units based in Japan, including Kadena AB. (U.S. Air Force photo by Airman 1st Class Anna Nolte)

The guidance issued today does not change the agency’s existing guidance for people who are not fully vaccinated. Unvaccinated travellers should still get tested 1-3 days before domestic travel and again 3-5 days after travel. They should stay home and self-quarantine for 7 days after travel or 10 days if they don’t get tested at the conclusion of travel.  CDC discourages non-essential domestic travel by those who are not fully vaccinated.

Updates to CDC travel guidance for vaccinated people can be found here:

https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/travelers/international-travel-during-covid19.html

https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/travelers/travel-during-covid19.html

United Hiring Pilots, Delta Needs More

United Airlines plans to hire hundreds of pilots in coming months as it gears up for a return to more normal passenger traffic over the next year. The airline told employees in an internal memo that the first to be contacted will be about 300 pilots who had conditional job offers or training that was supposed to start last year before the virus put a stop to all hiring. “With vaccination rates increasing and travel demand trending upwards, I’m excited to share that United will resume the pilot hiring process that was halted last year,” Bryan Quigley, United’s senior vice president of flight operations, said in the note. Meanwhile Delta is facing a pilot shortage that forced numerous cancellations over the Easter weekend.

Frequent flyer site onemileatatime.com reported that the airline cancelled at least 74 flights on Easter Sunday and packed the remaining flights full by temporarily suspending its seat blocking policy. As with United, Delta encouraged hundreds of pilots to retire or take buyouts as it scrambled to conserve cash over the past year. The airline also had problems staffing flights at Thanksgiving and Christmas.

Delta cancels flights due to staff shortages, opens up middle seats

DETROIT — Delta Air Lines canceled about 100 flights Sunday due to staff shortages, and it opened up middle seats a month earlier than expected in order to carry more passengers.

The airline says it had over 1 million passengers during the past few days, the highest number since before the coronavirus pandemic began last year.

“We apologize to our customers for the inconvenience, and the majority have been rebooked for the same travel day,” the airline said Sunday in a statement.

Delta DAL, +1.14% took steps to increase passenger capacity, including opening middle seats on Sunday and Monday, in an effort to accommodate passengers.

On Wednesday, the airline announced that it would stop blocking off middle seats starting in May. The move was made last April to keep passengers farther apart, a policy that Delta’s CEO had repeatedly cited as raising trust in the airline. The seats would be reopened as air travel recovers and more people become vaccinated against COVID-19, the airline said.

Delta said the middle seats were opened just for Sunday and Monday, and its seat-blocking policy has not changed. Where needed, seats could be unblocked in order to get customers to their destinations on the same day.

“Delta teams have been working through various factors, including staffing, large numbers of employee vaccinations and pilots returning to active status,” the airline said in the statement. Some employees were having adverse side effects from being vaccinated.

On Sunday, websites at three Delta hubs showed 33 canceled arriving or departing flights. There were 19 at Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport, another 11 at Detroit Metropolitan Airport and three more at Minneapolis-St. Paul Airport.

Delta said Wednesday that nearly 65% of people who flew on Delta last year expect to have at least one dose of the new vaccines by May 1. That gave Delta the assurance to end seating limits, it said.

The airline industry was divided over the utility of blocking middle seats to reduce the risk of spreading COVID-19 on a flight. Airlines including Delta, Southwest LUV, +0.39%, Alaska ALK, +0.40% and JetBlue JBLU, +0.15% limited seating for months, while United Airlines UAL, +0.49% never did and American AAL, -0.17% did so only briefly.

Social-distancing is hard if not impossible on an airplane, even with middle seats empty — a point that United CEO Scott Kirby made many times to explain his airline’s resistance to seat-blocking.

Air travel in the United States is recovering from pandemic lows. More than 1 million travelers have gone through U.S. airports for each of the last 20 days, although March traffic remains down nearly half from the same month in 2019.

The numbers are rising heading into the crucial summer vacation season. Last summer was a catastrophe for the airlines, contributing to Delta’s full-year loss of more than $12 billion. The airlines are eager to boost revenue as quickly as possible, and that means selling more seats.