Travelers leaving London are required to test negative for the coronavirus before boarding a flight to Newark Liberty International Airport.

The new travel restriction started Monday after a new, more contagious form of COVID-19 was detected in the United Kingdom.

Boston resident Lyvia Laurent arrived at the airport Tuesday after visiting her boyfriend in the country's capital.

"A day after I got there, we entered into a Tier 4, which meant that everything was shutting down," Laurent says. "The malls, restaurants, everything. It was a ghost town."

Others coming from London to Newark says they had to scramble to get tested, spending extra money and time to get back.

"It was kind of a challenging," says Julia Lindsey of New York. "The process was unorganized and a bit of a mess."

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says about six of 10 new cases in London are caused by the faster spreading variant of the virus.