WASHINGTON — At D.C. area airports, COVID-19 testing sites are set to open for both travelers and airport employees.
Starting mid-March, pop-up COVID-19 testing facilities will be in operation at Dulles International and Reagan National. XpresSpa, a health and wellness airport store, is opening testing sites called XpresCheck.
According to the company, at Dulles International Airport there will be nine separate testing rooms with the capacity to administer over 500 tests per day.
At Reagan National Airport, XpresSpa said in a statement the facility will have four testing rooms with an anticipated capacity to administer over 300 tests per day.
COVID-19 testing options will include both rapid and PCR tests at both airports in the pre-security area.
"We are excited to be expanding XpresCheck to the metro Washington DC region by opening at both Dulles International and Reagan National next month,” Doug Satzman, XpresSpa CEO, said in a statement. “We recognize the important role our COVID-19 testing facilities play in supporting domestic and international air travel by ensuring airport employees and travelers feel safe and confident when traveling through our nation’s capital.”
As the number of flyers is projected to increase in the coming months the Transportation Security Administration announced Friday its plans to hire over 6,000 Transportation Security Officers by summer.
According to TSA Spokesperson Lisa Farbstein she said this is in anticipation of a rising number of people expected to travel this summer.
“We’ve seen a slight uptick and it’s grown and grown,” Farbstein said. “We’ve seen a few days that have approached and exceeded 1 million passengers per day screened nationwide and we expect that to trend upwards as summer approaches and more people get vaccinated and they’re going to be most likely choosing to travel again.”
Farbstein said pre-pandemic there would be an average of 2.2 to 2.4 million passengers screened per day. She said during the slowest travel day of the pandemic, April 14, 2020, about 87,000 people were screened.
For travelers who do choose to get on an airplane, Farbstein said you can bring a 12 oz. hand sanitizer through security with you. TSA typically only allows liquids smaller than 3.4 oz. She also encourages people to bring as many hand sanitizing wipes as they want through the checkpoint.