Anyone flying into the United States from the United Kingdom will have to test negative for COVID-19 within 72 hours before their flight, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced Thursday. The agency cited concerns over a new variant of the coronavirus as the reason for the rule, which goes into effect Monday.
The coronavirus, like all viruses, has regularly mutated as it has spread through the population. Most mutations don’t make a virus behave any differently, but this new variant, which emerged in the UK, does appear to spread more easily than other forms of the virus. It does not appear to make people sicker and does not seem to be more deadly, although researchers are still studying that question. Experts say the...
