‘Testing is going to have to play a role’
Coronavirus screening launches at Bradley airport
WINDSOR LOCKS — After flying back Tuesday from Port St. Lucie, Fla., Karen Andes was fretting about getting tested for the coronavirus for the first time at Bradley International Airport.
It turned out that she did not need to worry.
“I thought it was going to
be bad, from listening to other stories about getting something poked up your nose,” said Andes, a resident of Auburn, Mass. “But it wasn’t bad at all. They had a really thin flexible stick, it went around a few times in each nostril, and it was done.”
Airport officials are hoping that many follow the lead of passengers like Andes and visit the testing center launched Sept. 30 in the airport’s baggage-claim area. Representing one of the first such facilities in a U.S. terminal, aviation executives and public health experts see the initiative as a boost to the state’s testing capacity — and one that can help allay customer concerns and begin to reverse the precipitous drop in air travel since the pandemic’s onset.
“We’re starting to hear from aviation entities around the world that testing is going to have to play a role in instilling confidence back in passengers to fly,” said Kevin Dillon, executive director of the Connecticut Airport Authority, which is the owner and operator of Bradley and the state’s aviation regulatory body.
Testing on arrival
Recent changes in Connecticut’s regulation of interstate travel have driven the need for the airport testing.
In June the state instituted, with New York and New Jersey, a travel advisory that required travelers to self-quarantine for 14 days if they were coming from states cited for high rates of COVID-19 transmission.
Florida and 34 other states and territories are on the advisory’s latest list, which is updated every Tuesday.
Last month, the advisory was modified. Anyone coming to the tri-state area from an affected state can now shorten or avoid the
14-day quarantine if they can show written proof of a negative
COVID-19 test taken in the 72 hours before their trip or anytime after arriving.
“There are trade-offs there. The mandatory quarantine is the most stringent approach in order to prevent potential for a later positive (test),” said Dr. David Banach, an infectious-disease physician and hospital epidemiologist in the UConn Health system. “But that presents its own challenges with enforcing it. … Testing versus no testing — I would favor testing. That does add as a risk-reduction strategy.”
Bradley found an experienced partner in Oakdale-based Genesys Diagnostics, which began coronavirus testing in March. The firm can test 500 samples each day, and it aims to scale up to
1,000 per day, total.
So far, an average of 165 passengers have been tested each day.
“We’re hoping that this will help with keeping people safe in a place like the airport that is so highly trafficked,” said Divakar Ahuja, Genesys’ chief operating officer. “Getting (testing) access in a place with such high traffic … is really important in potentially preventing the spread.”
The nasal-swab tests are optional. Passengers can sign up when they arrive, although airport officials encourage them to pre-register to speed up the process and minimize crowding.
Passengers are advise to check their health insurance, as many insurers will cover all costs associated with the testing, according to Bradley officials. If a passenger does not have health insurance, or if the test is not covered by insurance, tests are still available for
$125 each.
Statewide, Connecticut ran about 175,000 COVID-19 tests in the past week, according to Johns Hopkins University’s Coronavirus Resource Center. Adjusting for population, its testing volume ranks seventh highest among the states.
In addition to Andes, other passengers interviewed by Hearst Connecticut Media praised the tests at Bradley.
“The staff was wonderful,” said Carla Austin, of Tampa, Fla., who came to visit family in the state. “They were all really helpful and patient. It was a good experience.”
Some said, however, that the processing should be speedier. Plainville resident Karen Casey said it took her about 30 minutes to get tested, even after pre-registering.
“It’s a very long process,” said Casey, who had flown back with her husband from West Palm Beach, Fla. “And the line needs to be more organized. You would avoid problems if you had something like the zigzag (line) that they have in the TSA area.”
Other airports adopt testing
A drive-thru testing site in one of Bradley’s parking lots, available to passengers and other members of the general public, might launch in in the near future, according to airport officials.
In recent months, a number of other airports have also launched COVID-19 screening.
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced in late August that testing would be made available to passengers passing through John F. Kennedy International and LaGuardia airports in Queens, N.Y.
Newark International Airport also hosts a testing center. It has initially focused on airport workers, but it will expand to also serve passengers.
At Tweed-New Haven Airport, Connecticut’s only other airport offering commercial service and a regional hub for American Airlines, service has been suspended until at least November.
The U.S. Transportation Security Administration is not involved in COVID-19 testing, although it outlined its position in a July report co-published with the Departments of Homeland Security and Health and Human Services.
“Because the capabilities do not currently exist for routine inclusion of a testing strategy, it is not recommended in the current suite of travel-related mitigation measures,” the report said. “The U.S. government will continue to evaluate such options for possible future integration.”
Economy and public health
Aviation officials like Dillon expect that their industry will take several years to fully recover from the pandemic.
Even with expanded testing, new hygiene standards and mandates for passengers to wear masks while in terminals and on planes, they acknowledge that many might remain skittish about flying until vaccines are widely available.
“You’ve seen airports including Bradley substantially increase cleaning and sanitizing protocols and working with our airlines for them to do the same and having airlines like Southwest continue to make commitments on keeping middle seats open,” Dillon said. “I think that’s giving people a better sense (of safety). But until you really see a vaccine, I think it’s going to continue to be a challenge for the aviation industry, including Bradley.”
A total of about 1.6 million travelers passed through Bradley from January through July, down
58 percent from the same period in 2019, according to airport data.
U.S. airlines carried 16.5 million domestic and international passengers in June, down 80 percent from last year, according to the federal Bureau of Transportation Statistics.
Those plunging numbers have contributed to the withering demand and widespread job losses in hard-hit industries such as leisure and hospitality.
Connecticut has fared better than most other states in advancing in its economic re-opening without triggering another surge in the virus.
It has seen, however, some noticeable upticks in recent weeks. Compared with 42 CO
VID-19-related hospitalizations on Aug. 16 — the lowest level since the initial surge in cases in March and April — the totals this week were about triple that amount.
But coronavirus hospitalizations in the state still amount to less than 10 percent of their springtime peak, and Connecticut’s level of spread remains among the lowest in the country. Its positive rate ran at 1.15 percent in the past week, compared with a state record of 36 percent between April 19 and 25, according to Johns Hopkins.
“I have more confidence in air travel now than I did back in the spring before all the measures were implemented,” Banach said. “But there is everything from schools and universities re-opening, other public-facing businesses expanding and even fatigue that communities are experiencing with all the measures and the need to reinforce them. I think all these different factors are playing a role (in a rise in cases), and it’s going to be difficult to tease out air travel specifically and its contribution to the current transmission.”