Afghanistan Evacuees Don’t Need Negative COVID-19 Tests: State Dept
District of Columbia | August 22, 2021
The State Department announced on Thursday that evacuees are not required to get a COVID-19 test to travel from Afghanistan out of the country.
“A blanket humanitarian waiver has been implemented for COVID testing for all persons the U.S. government is relocating from Afghanistan,” a spokesperson for the department said.
As Afghanistan had been a hotspot for the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus pandemic, medical exams, including COVID-19 tests, had been required for evacuees prior to the Taliban’s takeover of Kabul, which added extra urgency to efforts to get at-risk Afghans out.
Separately, at a State Department press briefing on Thursday, spokesman Ned Price told reporters that there are currently no COVID-19 protocols in place for evacuation flights from Kabul, as the first priority is “to get as many people out as we can.”… (Excerpts from the Epoch Times)