Chaos at US airports as travellers return
WASHINGTON: Chaos gripped major US airports on Sunday as Americans returning from coronavirus-hit European countries overwhelmed authorities attempting to process the surge.
Frustrated passengers complained of hours-long lines, crowded and unsanitary conditions and general disarray in the system for screening people for symptoms of the virus.
“Very close quarters,” Ann Lewis Schmidt told CNN, describing conditions at Chicago’s O’hare International Airport (ORD). “So if we didn’t have the virus before, we have a great chance of getting it now!” Schmidt said.
US airports have been hit with a flood of Americans, many of them students, since restrictions on travel from Europe ordered by US President Donald Trump took effect at midnight on Friday.
The United States on Saturday extended the ban on travel from Europe, South Korea and China to Britain and Ireland. Only US citizens and legal residents are being allowed in from those countries, and they are then supposed to self-quarantine for 14 days. ‘DO SOMETHING NOW’ Illinois Governor JB Pritzker said the crowds and lines at O’hare were “unacceptable & need to be addressed immediately,” in a tweet directed at Trump and Vice President Mike Pence, who is coordinating the administration’s response to the pandemic.
“@realdonaldtrump @VP since this is the only communication medium you pay attention to — you need to do something NOW,” he said.
Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot was equally scathing: “The reactionary, poorly planned travel ban has left thousands of travellers at ORD forced into even greater health risk,” she tweeted.
“@realdonaldtrump and @CBP: no one has time for your incompetence. Fully staff our airport right now, and stop putting Americans in danger’’. CBP stands for Customs and Border Patrol.
Similar conditions were reported at New York’s JFK Airport and in Dallas.
Chad Wolf, acting Homeland Security secretary, acknowledged the long lines in a tweet and said his department was trying to add screening capacity.
“It currently takes 60 seconds for medical professionals to screen each passenger. We will be increasing capacity but the health and safety of the American public is first & foremost.” The airport bottlenecks were the latest evidence of turbulence in the administration’s response to a pandemic that started in China in December and has since spread worldwide.