Free home COVID tests at MIA’s international gates coming to an end, CDC says

International visitors in Miami will soon stop receiving free at-home COVID tests when they arrive, after a federal giveaway over the holidays comes to an end at select airports.

Miami International Airport is one of eight in the country selected by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for the free tests, which are handed out to passengers arriving on international flights. A CDC spokesperson said the program was aimed at beefing up testing for travelers during the busy holiday season, and will end next week about a month after it began.

The CDC “expanded access to COVID-19 testing to travelers at our nation’s airports over the holiday season,” CDC spokesperson Jade Fulce said, and has been “handing out as many of these free test kits as possible.”

The CDC launched the program Dec. 15 in Miami, Chicago, Dallas and other airports with large numbers of international flights. At MIA, CDC employees near Customs stations hand out tests made by Ellume with a request that travelers use the test three to five days after arrival, according to MIA spokesperson Greg Chin.

While the United States requires a negative COVID test for travelers before boarding an international flight to the U.S., follow-up tests after arrival are encouraged but not mandatory.

Fulce did not have an estimate on how many tests were distributed in Miami, where MIA is one of the busiest airports in the country for international flights. The latest traffic report from November showed about 23,000 international passenger arrivals per day, and about 43,000 domestic arrivals.

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