The Briefing
- Starting November 3, 2026, at 11:59 p.m. Eastern Standard Time, every passenger boarding any international flight to the United States must sign a health declaration confirming no presence in the Democratic Republic of the Congo during the 21 days before departure.
- The CDC requirement, issued October 22, applies to all travelers of every nationality from every country — including those who have never visited Africa — and covers passengers who are only transiting through a U.S. airport on their way elsewhere.
- The Bundibugyo Ebola outbreak driving this measure has reached 9,735 confirmed cases and 4,690 deaths globally as of October 21, 2026, placing it as the second-largest Ebola event in recorded history.
A new federal health rule will affect every traveler boarding a plane bound for the United States, regardless of passport, origin country, or whether they have ever been near Central Africa. Under an order signed October 22, 2026, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is requiring a pre-boarding health declaration from every passenger on every inbound international flight, a sweeping move driven by the worsening Bundibugyo Ebola crisis in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
The measure takes effect at 11:59 p.m. Eastern Standard Time on November 3, 2026, and creates a legally binding travel history record for each traveler before they set foot on U.S. soil. It applies to anyone flying in from Mexico, Japan, Brazil, Germany, Canada, or any other country — including millions of people who have no connection to the outbreak zone whatsoever.
What Every Traveler Must Sign Before Boarding
The document at the center of this requirement is officially titled the Passenger Disclosure and Attestation to the United States of America. Each passenger must certify in writing that they have not been physically present in the DRC at any point during the 21 days before their U.S.-bound flight departs.
The CDC defines "presence" in the DRC to include any airport connection on Congolese soil, even if the passenger remained on the aircraft or never left the transit area. Flying over Congolese airspace at altitude without touching down, however, falls outside the declaration's scope and does not trigger the requirement. The form is available in paper and digital formats, and either a handwritten or electronic signature satisfies the rule. For travelers under 18, a parent, guardian, or other authorized adult must complete and sign on their behalf.
What Airlines Are Required to Do
Carriers bear significant legal responsibility under this order. The CDC's official technical instructions direct each airline or aircraft operator to verify that every passenger has submitted a completed and signed attestation before boarding is allowed. Any traveler who arrives at the gate without a valid form must be denied entry to the aircraft — there is no discretion left to individual carriers on this point. Airlines face legal liability for non-compliance.
Each carrier must retain a copy of every passenger's declaration for a minimum of 42 days after the flight lands in the United States, keeping the records available for the CDC to request at any time during that window. The agency has encouraged airlines to embed the attestation into their online check-in systems to ease the process for passengers and reduce last-minute delays at airport gates. Carriers may also accept foreign-language versions of the form, as long as the airline assumes responsibility for the accuracy of any translation provided.
Who Is Covered — and What Trips Are Exempt
The order's scope is deliberately sweeping. It encompasses passengers on commercial airlines, charter services, private jets, and general aviation aircraft. It covers U.S. citizens, lawful permanent residents, foreign nationals, and every visa category. The rule also applies to passengers who are only connecting through a U.S. airport en route to another country — if a flight lands on American soil at any point, the attestation is mandatory.
What the order does not cover is equally clear: land border crossings and arrivals by sea fall entirely outside its scope. No U.S. territory, including Puerto Rico, Guam, or the U.S. Virgin Islands, counts as a foreign country for purposes of this requirement.
The Outbreak Behind the Order
The CDC's current outbreak summary records 9,735 confirmed Ebola cases and 4,690 deaths globally as of October 21, 2026, placing this crisis as the second-largest Ebola event in recorded history, trailing only the 2014–2016 West Africa epidemic that killed more than 11,000 people. The DRC accounts for the overwhelming share of those figures, with 9,704 confirmed cases and 4,687 deaths.
The outbreak was officially declared by the Congolese Ministry of Public Health on May 15, 2026, in the Ituri Province of eastern DRC. The causative agent is the Bundibugyo strain of the Ebola virus — a variant distinct from the Zaire strain that drove most prior outbreaks. Two days after the declaration, on May 17, the World Health Organization announced a Public Health Emergency of International Concern — the highest-level global alert in international health law — taking the unprecedented step of bypassing the usual emergency committee process, citing the speed of the spread.
A WHO disease outbreak bulletin published October 20 documented active transmission across 66 health zones within eight provinces of the DRC, a geographic footprint that explains why U.S. authorities concluded that itinerary-based screening alone was no longer sufficient. Confirmed cases have also been reported in Uganda, Kenya, France, and Nigeria, though none of those countries comes close to the scale of transmission seen inside the DRC.
How U.S. Restrictions Have Evolved Since May
When federal agencies first moved to contain the risk, the restrictions were narrowly targeted. On May 18, 2026, the CDC invoked Title 42 public health authority to bar entry for certain non-citizens who had been in the DRC, Uganda, or South Sudan within 21 days of their planned U.S. arrival. Subsequent amendments removed an initial exemption for lawful permanent residents and eventually extended the restriction to include U.S. citizens who had been in the DRC.
The October 22 attestation order adds a documentary layer on top of those existing entry restrictions. Rather than depending solely on booking records or verbal disclosures at customs, federal health authorities will now hold a signed, legally binding statement from every arriving passenger — one that can be audited during a public health investigation or used to establish accountability in the event of a confirmed importation case.
What Travelers Need to Know Before Departure
The attestation is not a medical screening, a vaccine verification, or an Ebola test. It is a formal travel history statement. Submitting willfully false information to a U.S. government authority is a federal offense under 18 U.S.C. § 1001 and can result in criminal fines and imprisonment for the passenger, as well as legal liability for any airline that knowingly allows a passenger to board without a completed form.
The order is currently scheduled to remain in force through December 18, 2026, though the CDC retains full authority to extend, modify, or lift it before that date depending on developments in the outbreak. Limited exemptions may be granted for passengers traveling under U.S. government authorization for official medical evacuation of Ebola patients, or for specific humanitarian operations cleared by the CDC.
There are no exemptions based on nationality, country of departure, or purpose of travel. All travelers should confirm with their airline how the attestation process will be handled before heading to the airport, as each carrier may implement it differently — some will capture it digitally at online check-in, others may use paper forms at the gate. Allowing extra time before departure is strongly advisable.
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