Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to the Answer of 6 December to Question 85389 on Travel: Coronavirus and with reference to the guidance of 2 December 2021 by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention entitled Requirement for Proof of Negative COVID-19 Test or Documentation of Recovery from COVID-19, what assessment he has made of the feasibility of travel to the United States for families with children older than two but younger than 16 years where those children have recently recovered from covid-19 and therefore still produce a positive result on a PCR test, but cannot access a recovery certificate from his Department.

In the United States of America, children under 18 years old are exempt from requiring vaccination but must show a negative COVID-19 test result no more than one day before travel. Recent infection and associated immunity is not associated with a residual positive polymerase chain reaction test. There is no guarantee that a positive test outcome is not caused by a new COVID-19 infection and potentially a variant of concern. There are no plans to allow children to provide evidence of their recent recovery for overseas travel.