WASHINGTON — Health officials announced Tuesday that an expanded list of 20 American airports will screen for the new strain of coronavirus. Dulles International Airport, one of the airports listed, confirmed later in the day it has not started the screening procedures, nor gotten the word to do so.
"We have no time frame on when we may begin screening here at Dulles," Micah Lillard, a spokesperson for the airport, said. "As of now, we have not gotten any word that the CDC plans advanced health screenings."
Dulles is one of 20 American airports where the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention runs permanent quarantine facilities year-round. Despite Tuesday morning’s news conference in Washington, where officials said the 20 facilities would screen for coronavirus, officials at Dulles had no details on the logistics of the efforts.
"We would see the CDC enhance their staffing levels at the quarantine locations, and then they would take on any enhanced screenings at the international arrivals area," Lillard said. "Customs and Border Patrol would work in conjunction with the CDC, but that’s not happening now."
Three non-stop flights to Dulles are in focus: a 13-hour United and Air China route direct to Beijing, as well as a 15-hour Cathay Pacific flight direct from Dulles to Hong Kong.
United announced Monday it would suspend its Dulles to Beijing route beginning Feb. 1.
Here’s the expanded list of airports screening for the new strain of coronavirus:
- LAX – Los Angeles International
- SFO – San Francisco International
- ORD – Chicago O'Hare
- JFK – New York City
- ATL – Atlanta Hartsfield-Jackson International
- ANC – Anchorage Ted Stevens International
- BOS – Boston Logan International
- DFW – Dallas-Fort Worth International
- DTW – Detroit Metropolitan
- ELP – El Paso International
- EWR – Newark Liberty International
- HNL – Honolulu International
- IAD – Washington Dulles International
- IAH – Houston George Bush Intercontinental
- MIA – Miami International
- MSP – Minneapolis-St. Paul International
- PHL – Philadelphia International
- SAN – San Diego International
- SEA – Seattle-Tacoma International
- SJU – Puerto Rico's San Juan Airport