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New Covid Directives From President Biden Will Impact Holiday Travel

MIAMI (CBSMiami) - The Omicron variant is impacting holiday air travel this year.
That mask will remain on your face in the air, on the train or on public transportation until Mid-March now.

"I'm a businessman, I need to travel so I guess I have to cope with it," said Passenger Drew Benn.

If you're heading out of the country, when you come back you'll have to get tested within a day before your return flight.

"It's going to be a lot more inconvenient and a lot of unnecessary expense," said Passenger Terry Coy. He and his wife Julie are heading to Ecuador. They don't like the new testing requirements.

Dr. Hany Atallah is the Chief Medical Officer for Jackson Memorial. "I think the sooner you can do it from when you're going to travel, the better," he said.

He said a major step in fighting the potential of that new variant is getting the shot. "The way to break that chain is make sure that everyone get adequately vaccinated and doesn't get the illness to begin with," Dr. Atallah said.

Medical experts say we have the tools already to stay safe.  

So, if you're planning that visit to Art Basel or just going about town doctors suggest doing what we already know, like Get Vaccinated, wear a mask, practice social distancing, get tested, and wash your hands.

Dr. Atallah warns if we don't take precautions, we know what happens next. "Unless we're careful, appropriately careful, Omicron will come and do the same thing the delta variant and other variants have done and we'll wind up finding ourselves in another surge," he worries.

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