Screening for coronavirus yields packed U.S. airports
CHICAGO — Airports nationwide were thrown into chaos this weekend as workers scrambled to roll out the Trump administration’s hastily arranged health screenings for travelers returning from Europe.
Scores of anxious passengers encountered jampacked terminals, long lines and hours of delays as they waited to be questioned by health authorities at some of the busiest travel hubs in the United States, including Dallas-Fort Worth, Boston’s Logan International Airport and Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport.
The administration announced the “enhanced entry screenings” Friday as part of a suite of travel restrictions and other strategies aimed at slowing the spread of the coronavirus. Passengers on flights from more than two dozen countries in Europe are being routed through 13 U.S. airports, where workers are checking their medical histories, examining them for symptoms and instructing them to self-quarantine.
But shortly after taking effect, the measures designed to prevent new infections created the exact conditions that facilitate the spread of the highly contagious virus, with throngs of people standing shoulder-to-shoulder in bottlenecks.
As confusion and anxiety spread, the airport situation threatened to deepen the coronavirus crisis for the Trump administration, which has struggled to mount a coherent response to the pandemic or convey a consistent message to the public about what the federal government is doing to mitigate the outbreak.
“Last night, we saw [passenger] safety and security was seriously compromised and people were forced into conditions that are against CDC guidelines and totally unacceptable,” Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot said Sunday during a news conference at O’Hare.
Conditions were better Sunday, but lines remained longer than usual. Not all of the 13 U.S. airports accepting European arrivals experienced overcrowding. Airports serving Miami, Seattle, Los Angeles and Newark, N.J., reported short lines at customs Saturday and Sunday.
It did not help that the president’s error-filled Wednesday address announcing the sweeping new travel ban, soon to expand to the United Kingdom and Ireland, left many rushing to fly home immediately. Officials hurried to correct the president’s statement that “all travel” from Europe would grind to a halt, but the weekend mayhem spurred another scramble.
The scenes at the airports — captured in an outpouring of angry social media posts — resembled the chaotic implementation in early 2017 of President Donald Trump’s travel ban targeting citizens from predominantly Muslim countries, which triggered confusion and protests at U.S. airports as travelers from the Middle East were detained or sent back with almost no warning.
In a tweet posted after midnight — several hours after reports of clogged terminals started circulating — acting Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf acknowledged the backup and said the department was trying to add screening capacity and help airlines expedite the process.