(Corrects day of week in paragraph two to Thursday, not late Wednesday)

WASHINGTON, Dec 24 (Reuters) - The U.S. government will require all airline passengers arriving from the United Kingdom to test negative for COVID-19 within 72 hours of departure starting Monday amid concerns about a new coronavirus variant that may be more transmissible.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said in a statement late on Thursday that all airline passengers arriving from the UK must test negative in order to fly to the United States. The decision was a turnaround after the Trump administration told U.S. airlines on Tuesday it was not planning to require any testing for arriving UK passengers.

(Reporting by David Shepardson; Editing by Raju Gopalakrishnan)