Amid the chaos and confusion at the airport, the United States said it had taken at least one step to ease requirements for those seeking to leave: COVID-19 tests.
Although
Afghanistan had been a hotspot for the
coronavirus pandemic, the State Department said Thursday that evacuees are not required to get a negative
COVID-19 result to travel.
“A blanket humanitarian waiver has been implemented for
COVID testing for all persons the U.S. government is relocating from
Afghanistan,” the department said.
It referred questions about how the matter would be handled once evacuees arrive in the United States to the Department of Health and Human Services. Medical exams, including
coronavirus tests, had been required for evacuees prior to Taliban’s weekend takeover of Kabul, which added extra urgency to efforts to get at-risk Afghans out of the country.
