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Does Southwest follow CDC’s 5-day quarantine rule? Or still only accept negative test.

Kcat
Explorer C

My kids and I are in Mexico, and they tested positive before our return. Everyone is fully vaccinated and asymptomatic. The CDC says we can quarantine for 5 days, then travel, but Southwest doesn’t have that on their site. I tried calling southwest but their wait time is 2.5 hours and I was disconnected after 30 minutes.

3 REPLIES 3

Re: Does Southwest follow CDC’s 5-day quarantine rule? Or still only accept negative test.

TheMiddleSeat
Aviator A

The CDC currently provides 2 options for people returning to the United States from another country, a negative test OR documentation of recovery signed by a health official. Here's their wording:

 

"If you plan to travel internationally, you will need to get a COVID-19 viral test (regardless of vaccination status or citizenship) no more than 1 day before you travel by air into the United States. You must show your negative result to the airline before you board your flight.

If you recently recovered from COVID-19, you may instead travel with documentation of recovery from COVID-19 (i.e., your positive COVID-19 viral test result on a sample taken no more than 90 days before the flight’s departure from a foreign country and a letter from a licensed healthcare provider or a public health official stating that you were cleared to travel)."

 

https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/travelers/testing-international-air-travelers.html

 

If you provide either of those you should be allowed to fly. 

 

--TheMiddleSeat

 

Re: Does Southwest follow CDC’s 5-day quarantine rule? Or still only accept negative test.

Kcat
Explorer C

Thanks. Our hotel won’t provide a doctor’s note so I guess we’re stuck. It’s crazy we could fly all over the US but we can’t fly back. I wish the airlines would follow the CDC’s rules.

Re: Does Southwest follow CDC’s 5-day quarantine rule? Or still only accept negative test.

TheMiddleSeat
Aviator A

The info I provided is the CDC's rules.  The "rules" you are talking about are not related to international travel, that has its own rules provided by the CDC.

 

--TheMiddleSeat