In hunt for Omicron, CDC offered free COVID tests to some flights from Southern Africa
CBSN
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) over the weekend began offering passengers coming from Southern African countries free COVID-19 tests as they passed through customs checkpoints at four international airports, in an effort to ramp up surveillance for potential cases of the Omicron variant.
Sequencing the variant that caused any positive tests collected from those travelers at the airport will take up to three days, with passengers sent off with additional at-home tests they were asked to send in after three to five days.
The unplanned expansion of the CDC's airport pilot program is one of a handful of efforts over the past months that the agency has backed to search for new variants of concern like Omicron, which health officials acknowledge could already be spreading within America's borders.
Actor Richard Dreyfuss is facing backlash for allegedly sharing remarks that audience members found sexist, homophobic and generally offensive at a Q&A event over the weekend tied to a Massachusetts theater's screening of "Jaws." Dreyfuss starred in the 1975 blockbuster that was filmed in Massachusetts and screened Saturday night at The Cabot, a performing arts center in the coastal community of Beverly.
Another American who was arrested in the Turks and Caicos Islands for possessing ammunition was sentenced to time served and a $9,000 fine on Tuesday, local media reported. Tyler Wenrich was facing a potential mandatory minimum sentence of 12 years in prison for ammunition charges in the British territory.