Inbound flights from high-risk countries have been monitored since the CDC began flagging travelers coming through Wuhan, China.
International travelers arriving in the United States will no longer be subjected to enhanced screening for COVID-19 at the airport, the White House announced Monday.
Since January, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has been screening travelers for symptoms of the potentially deadly contagion at select airports.
Inbound flights from high-risk countries have been monitored since the CDC began flagging travelers coming from or through Wuhan, China. The outbreak was first identified in the city in December 2019.
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Passengers on these flights have been funneled through 15 U.S. airports since March.
International travelers arriving at the San Francisco International Airport, John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York, Los Angeles International Airport, Chicago O’Hare International Airport, and Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, had a temperature and symptoms check, and were required to provide information that could be used for contact tracing for infections.
The U.S. government said this week that the screenings and funneling will come to an end beginning Sept. 14, Yahoo News reports.
Critics have described the move as another “out of sight, out of mind” approach by the Trump administration.
For months, Trump has publicly downplayed the significance of the virus that has reportedly killed around 190,000 people in the United States.
An earlier report on theGRIO noted that the president admitted that COVID-19 was “more deadly than even your strenuous flus,” but still downplayed the virus to veteran reporter Bob Woodward.
‘Rage,’ is the latest offering from the award-winning journalist and CNN obtained exclusive excerpts of the book ahead of its Sept. 15 release. Woodward interviewed the president and he admitted that he knew how crippling coronavirus could be.
The audiotapes were published by the outlet on Wednesday.
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