TravelTalkOnline Forums Travel and Vacation Forums St. Maarten - St. Martin CDC says OK for Travel if fully Vaccinated

"For international travel, fully vaccinated people do not need to be tested before their trips unless it is required by the destination, the guidance says. For their return to the United States, fully vaccinated people should get tested and have a negative result before they board an international flight back to the United States."
Encouraging. Hope St Maarten will recognize this for US travelers.

Link to full article.
LINK

Sorry, that doesn't seem any different than what the rule is now, at least where we are. Maybe it's different in the NE US???

You beat me to that comment....sounds the same to me

I guess the story in total for DOMESTIC travel is somewhat of a different spin for the CDC, as before they were still discouraging ALL travel, even by fully vaccinated individuals.

I think the hope is that SXM will eventually accept US vaccinations and simplify the work of their own administration as well as making it easier and more appealing for tourists to return to the island. If you're vaccinated all the stress around testing (false positives, time constraints, et.) will be removed

Agreed, that would be good news, BUT as of now anyway, the US is still requiring everyone who returns to the US to be tested, regardless of whether they are vaccinated or not. So that part is not within SXM's control.

did the US ever require testing before international travel, if not required by the destination?...why would they?

Yes, they did.

W.

Yup....Costa Rica hasn't required a neg test for travel to the country for some time but still need one to return

This is amazing since we leave tomorrow AM for SXM and were planning to have to quarantine when we got home and now we don't have to! Tomorrow at this time we will be on the beach!

The CDC is only issuing guidelines anyway. This changes absolutely nothing domestically or internationally. In the same breath CDC said people shouldn’t be traveling at all because of the increase in cases.

For us in NY state, our return to work protocols for international travel state “follow cdc guidelines” so it’s a game changer for us as far as international travel is concerned since the guidelines now say we do not have to quarantine upon return!

Exactly. The CDC makes recommendations and issues guidelines. The individual states determine whether to issue mandates based on those recommendations and guidelines. Nothing the CDC says mandates anything. They are not a lawmaking body.

Isn’t the CDC requiring the tests for passengers to get back into the US? It’s not a law, but it seems to have the same effect.

CDC Order Link

Correct. The CDC mandated the testing for return international travelers

They provide guidelines and can mandate orders if necessary

I stand corrected.