In a huge step taken by the Trump government, the airports in America will no longer conduct COVID-19 screening of international travellers, starting September 14. The order has come directly from the White House.
This is a big step considering the US has the most number of virus positive cases in the world. Almost every court, big or small, is conducting screenings on international passengers on the airports. In such a situation, the decision of the US government comes as a surprise.
In the US, there are 15 select airports that started doing normal temperature checks and handling out health-related questionnaires to incoming international travellers in January. These airports include New York’s John F. Kennedy, Los Angeles International, and Atlanta. Now, COVID-19 checks will stop at these airports too.
The country began conducting an enhanced Coronavirus screening of international passengers arriving especially from Wuhan, China, at select airports in the beginning of the year. Soon more airports in the US began the process of screening passengers coming from red zone countries.
The entire process ended up in a bad way for the passengers, from waiting in endless queues and overcrowded airports. Several American airlines have given a heads up to the decision.
A leading American airline group in their statement said, “We continue to support spending scarce screening resources where they can best be utilized and no longer believe that it makes sense to continue screening at these 15 airports given the extremely low number of passengers identified by the (US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) as potentially having a health issue.”
As of now, the US administration is not screening domestic airline passengers. But restrictions still remain for travelers arriving from countries like China, Brazil, Iran, and the European Union.
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