US and passenger Covid screening

The United States is reportedly ending heightened coronavirus screening of inbound passengers at airports.

According to the latest UK Foreign & Commonwealth Office website (which is always current) whilst Canada is on the ‘no quarantine’ list that is not the case with the US.  Should the whole of North America go on the list it will be seen as a boost for the Heathrow – New York air bridge, the world’s busiest long-haul city pairing.

A US Transportation Security Administration official said less than 15 passengers were positive for the virus out of 675,000 passengers screened at airports.

Passengers arriving from high-risk destinations at 15 designated airports have been temperature checked with a requirement to provide medical history, current health conditions and contact information.

Trade group Airlines for America (A4A) supported the decision in a statement to CNN.

"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 CDC," A4A said.

From Monday the targeted screenings will end and passengers will not need to fly into the designated airports used for Covid-19 screenings.

Last month the CDC dropped a recommendation for travellers to undertake a 14-day post-travel quarantine, although some states separately still require this for domestic travel.

www.tsa.gov

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