New CDC order requires all international flyers to sign Ebola declaration starting tonight

Starting at 11:59 p.m. Eastern time on Tuesday, every passenger and crew member boarding an international flight to the United States must sign a declaration confirming they have not set foot in the Democratic Republic of Congo in the previous 21 days. The requirement, issued by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, applies to all air travelers entering the country from any foreign airport, including U.S. citizens and green-card holders, and covers flights that merely connect through the United States on the way elsewhere.

The CDC's attestation order is the agency's latest step in responding to an Ebola outbreak that has become one of the largest in the disease's history. According to the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control's running tally, updated Oct. 30 with data through Oct. 28, Congo has recorded 10,274 confirmed cases and 4,992 deaths since the outbreak began. Uganda, where a linked cluster briefly spread earlier this year, was declared free of transmission by the World Health Organization in late August after 42 days without a new case.

A fast-moving strain behind the new rule

The outbreak is caused by the Bundibugyo strain of Ebola virus, one of several known variants of the pathogen and historically associated with high fatality rates. Unlike the Ebola epidemic that struck West Africa more than a decade ago, this outbreak has been concentrated in Congo's Ituri province, though public health agencies have tracked travel-linked cases reaching beyond the region as infected or exposed travelers moved through international air routes.

The attestation requirement is separate from, and layered on top of, an existing entry restriction. Since May, the CDC has maintained an order suspending entry for foreign nationals who were physically present in Congo, Uganda or South Sudan within 21 days of travel. That order has been renewed roughly monthly; the version signed Oct. 11 is due to lapse Nov. 10 unless extended again. The new declaration requirement goes further, reaching every air traveler regardless of nationality or itinerary, not just those arriving from the affected countries.

What travelers have to do

The order, signed by the HHS assistant secretary for health on Oct. 22 and amended Oct. 28, was published in the Federal Register as a formal agency notice. It bars airlines from boarding anyone on a U.S.-bound flight — passenger or crew, including deadheading crew and those on cargo aircraft — unless that person has completed a signed attestation, in paper or digital form, stating they were not present in Congo during the 21 days before departure. CDC guidance defines "presence" broadly enough to include a layover at a Congolese airport, even without leaving the terminal.

Airlines, not the government, are responsible for collecting the forms, typically folded into check-in or boarding procedures, and must keep copies for at least 42 days after a flight lands, producing them to federal authorities on request. A parent or other authorized adult may sign on behalf of a minor or someone unable to complete the form themselves. Refusing to sign means being denied boarding; CDC's order also warns that knowingly filing a false attestation can carry criminal penalties under federal law. The requirement covers only air travel — it does not extend to land border crossings or seaports — and is set to remain in force through 11:59 p.m. Eastern on Dec. 18, a 45-day window the agency says it will reassess based on how the outbreak evolves.

Airlines say the timeline is unworkable

The rushed rollout has drawn pushback from the aviation industry. The International Air Transport Association and Airlines for America, the trade group representing United, American, Delta and Southwest, each sent letters to the CDC in late October arguing that the roughly two-week runway between the amended order and its effective date left too little time to rebuild check-in systems, train staff and update digital boarding processes across carriers serving the U.S. market. Airlines for America also pressed for exemptions covering flight crews, active-duty military personnel and jumpseating pilots, and noted that of the roughly 130 million international passengers screened for travel links to the outbreak region last year, fewer than 25,000 had any connection to Congo at all.

"Overly stringent, costly and burdensome to Americans and the US airline industry," Airlines for America said of the new requirement, in a letter reported by Reuters.

IATA, which represents more than 370 carriers worldwide, separately questioned why the requirement was limited to air travel while land and sea arrivals from the same region face no comparable declaration. As of the most recent reporting, the CDC had not responded publicly to the airlines' objections, and there has been no indication the Nov. 3 start date would be delayed.

Who it affects, and what to expect at the airport

In practice, the rule touches nearly anyone boarding an inbound international flight, regardless of where they departed from or whether their trip had anything to do with Central Africa. Travel advisories circulating among frequent flyers recommend building in extra time at the gate during the initial rollout and checking with individual airlines, since some are expected to fold the attestation into online check-in while others may rely on paper forms at the airport. Domestic U.S. flights are unaffected. Travelers who have recently been in Congo, Uganda or South Sudan face additional, preexisting restrictions tied to the earlier entry-suspension order, separate from the new attestation.

For most passengers, the practical burden is small — a signature or a checked box — but the scale is not: the requirement applies to every international arrival into the United States, across every airline and every foreign departure point, with no carve-out for travelers with no plausible connection to the outbreak. The CDC has said the attestation requirement, like the broader entry restriction it supplements, will be reassessed against case counts, geographic spread and containment progress in Congo, meaning its duration will likely track the trajectory of an outbreak that, roughly six months after Congo first declared it in mid-May, is still adding roughly 2,000 new cases and close to 1,000 deaths a month, by the recent pace of ECDC's tally.