Airline passengers from locked-down Italy are STILL arriving in the US with more flights scheduled as critics criticize airports for not testing them for coronavirus when they land – despite screening travelers from China
An Emirates flight arrived in the US Monday night shortly after all of Italy was placed on lockdown due to the coronavirus outbreak
JFK welcomed passengers from Milan, shortly after Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte’s new attempt to beat coronavirus in Europe’s worst-affected country
The do not travel advisory has been set until April 3
But social media users complained people were not being checked after flying in from Italy
One claimed only people from China were being checked for high temperatures
Others complained their flights to Italy were scheduled but returns to the US were canceled
The virus that has so far killed more than 460 in Italy
By LEAH SIMPSON
DAILYMAIL.COM
10 March 2020
Passengers from Italy last night arrived in the US and still faced no screening when they landed despite the country being locked down to coronavirus.
Just one flight landed in America, Emirates Flight 205 that took off from Milan and arrived at John F Kennedy Airport at 7.53pm.
The new restrictions shutting down Italy were announced while the passenger jet was in the air.
But travelers were furious at the lack of checks in US airports, noting that no one was being screened for COVID-19 symptoms upon landing.
‘My friend just landed at JFK from Italy and they didn’t even check her or anyone on her plane but they checked the plane from China. Even though all of Italy just got shut down makes total sense!’ a Twitter user named Kimberly sarcastically posted Monday night.
Huge numbers of flights from Italy to the US have been cancelled, but more are scheduled for the forthcoming days.
Another complained that as the new rules were announced, it was unclear how travelers would be treated when they arrive in the US and what would happened when it was time to return to the region.
Marjorie Perrelli Day tweeted at JFK’s Twitter account: ‘I have friends coming from Italy today from Rome. What will they have to do since Italy is now totally shut down. People have been tweeting that JFK has zero screening. So can you explain this?’
JFK appeared to deny they were skipping necessary checks.
‘The Port Authority is providing all necessary support for the screening currently being carried out by the @CDCgov & @CBP of passengers at its airports and any ensuing referrals for quarantine in cooperation with state and city health authorities.’
One social media user was baffled as she complained she would be able to fly to Italy but said her flight back to the States had been canceled.
‘So riddle me this…just got notified by @CheapOAir that there’s been a change to our @Delta flight to Milan, Italy…we now have a 5.5 hour layover at JFK and our return flights are completely cancelled…so we can go there, we just can’t return? AND we lose our money.’
She added in another tweet: ‘We were going to visit my sister and family in Italy for my nephew’s birthday…now we get to deal with this nightmare.’
Emirates, American Airlines and Delta still had flights scheduled for Tuesday but Alitalia flights were canceled.
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