After a long time of waiting, the United States of America has finally decided to get its head straight and make COVID-19 testing mandatory for all international visitors.
From The Daily Mail UK:
“The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has announced it will start requiring all international travelers coming into the US (both visitors and Americans returning home) to show proof of a negative COVID-19 test in order to enter the country.
Global testing requirements would be an expansion on a Trump administration policy barring UK travelers without a negative test from entry, which was announced on December 24.
The CDC has announced it will start requiring all international travelers coming into the US to show proof of a negative COVID-19 test in order to enter the country.
Global testing requirements would be an expansion on a Trump administration policy barring UK travelers without a negative test from entry, which was announced on December 24.”
All of this was in response to the new mutations of COVID-19 that have made their way around the world and on to American soil, such as the “b117” mutant believed to be 70% more transmissible than the original coronavirus. To date, we over 82 Americans across 10 separate states who are confirmed to have contracted this specific mutant.
This ruling is expected to take place on January 26th, with exceptions made for people traveling within the United States and all passengers under the age of 2 years old.
Even more interesting is that this proposal was offered a while back, but government officials had mixed feelings about it. From Reuters:
“The CDC confirmed last week it had circulated a proposal to expand the testing requirement after discussing the idea for weeks. Some senior White House officials opposed it, and officials briefed on the matter said last week that US public health officials had essentially given up winning approval until President-elect Joe Biden took office.”
I would suspect that the new order will eventually be applied to domestic flights in the US as well. There’s simply no way we will ever return to a “new normal” of traveling unless universal COVID-19 testing is not a part of regular air travel.
At the very least, it will eliminate some of the harsher quarantines being enforced by states such as New York and California.
But I’m curious to know: What do YOU think about this newest order from the United States to have all international travelers subjected to a COVID-19 test before entering? Agree or disagree? Let us know where you stand by replying to the newsletter!
Rest in Peace, Sheldon Adelson
At the age of 87, Sheldon Adelson has passed away. Anybody who is deeply entrenched in the travel industry will instantly recognize him, but for those of you who don’t, let’s bring you up to speed. From CBC News:
“American casino mogul Sheldon Adelson, who built lavish gambling palaces that made him one of the world’s richest men and became a potent supporter of US President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, has died at age 87 [from complications related to treatment for non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma].
…a college dropout and the son of a cab driver, was short and stocky, had thinning red hair and in later years used a motorized scooter because of a medical condition that made it difficult to walk. But his appearance belied his clout and drive.
At age 12, he began selling newspapers on street corners. By 16, he ran a candy vending-machine business… Adelson dabbled in entrepreneurial ventures before launching in 1979 a Las Vegas computer trade show that became the world’s biggest.
He used its success as a springboard to buy the aging Las Vegas Sands Hotel, then built the largest privately owned US convention center and later the Venetian… By 2004 Adelson opened his first casino and Macau later became the world’s top gambling center. Las Vegas Sands’ initial public offering in December 2004 made him a multibillionaire.”
He’s had his hands involved in over 50 different enterprises. He was single-handedly responsible for creating “the meetings, incentives, convention and exhibition-based integrated resort concept” that’s now famous today in hotels worldwide. Not bad for a man worth $34 billion, according to Bloomberg.
Rest in peace, Sheldon. Heaven will serve you well.
Is Carnival Corporation Slowly Sinking to the Ground?
Some pretty awful news for cruise company Carnival, according to Barron’s:
“[Carnival] reported a fiscal fourth-quarter net loss of $2.2 billion [compared with a profit of $423 million a year earlier], but its chief financial officer David Bernstein said that it has enough liquidity to get through 2021 ‘even in a zero-revenue environment.’”
Not sure how Berstein can remain so confident when that loss is $600 million worse than what analysts were forecasting. And that’s on top of the ludicrously high cash burn rate he claims is getting better over time:
“In the fourth quarter, the company’s monthly cash burn rate was $500 million, slightly better than the company’s previous expectation of $530 million due to the timing of capital expenditures. It expects its monthly average cash burn to increase to $600 million in the current quarter, which started last month. That includes restart expenses.”
Meanwhile, Bernstein also claims bookings are surprisingly higher than expected, getting very close to what the company had before the COVID-19 pandemic:
“Bookings for the second half of 2021 ‘are within the historical range,’ Bernstein said. Bookings for the first half of 2022 ‘are ahead of a very strong 2019, which was at the high end of the historical range,’ he added.”
Let’s hope his prediction about bookings will hold true in the middle of this year, otherwise, that promise of surviving 2021 without any revenue will be quickly broken…
