US may test airline passengers from Brazil for coronavirus
Demetri Sevastopulo in Washington
Donald Trump is considering requiring airline passengers from Brazil to be tested for coronavirus, amid concerns that travellers could exacerbate the pandemic in Florida, which has been less hit than other big US states.
Speaking after a meeting with Ron DeSantis, Florida’s Republican governor, Mr Trump said he was looking “very strongly” at whether he should require passengers from South America, including Brazil, to be tested for the virus.
“We’re looking at doing it on the international flights coming out of areas that are heavily infected … Brazil is getting to that category,” Mr Trump told reporters. “We’re looking at it very strongly.”
Sitting beside Mr Trump in the Oval Office earlier on Tuesday, Mr DeSantis said he was concerned about a possible influx of infected travellers from Brazil and that airlines should bear responsibility for testing all their passengers.
“Brazil and some of those places which have a lot interaction with Miami, you’re gonna probably see the epidemic increase there as their season changes. We could be way on the other side, doing well in Florida, and then you could just have people kind of come in,” Mr DeSantis said in an exchange before their private meeting.
Florida has just under 33,000 of the more than 1m confirmed cases of coronavirus in the US. The death toll in the state hit 1,171 on Tuesday, which was relatively low for a state of 21.4m people.
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