US considering COVID-19 scanning for international air travellers: Trump

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The United States is considering coronavirus scanning of air travellers from countries hit hard by the virus to stop its spread in the country, President Donald Trump has said. Trump told reporters that this could be done in coordination with either the airlines or government. “We're working with the airlines. Maybe it's a combination of both,” he said.

“We're looking at doing it on the international flights coming out of areas that are heavily infected,” he said.

“But, I think that we're going to look at it from the standpoint--I was discussing that with the Governor of Florida, with Ron (DeSantis), a little while ago. So, we're going to be looking at that coming in from other countries, frankly, but South America seems to be one that's talked about because they have so much business going into Florida,” he said.

Earlier in the day, DeSantis told reporters at the White House that Brazil and some of those places which have a lot of interaction with Miami are going to probably see the epidemic increase there is their season changes.

“So one of the things I have mentioned to the President is you have this Abbott labs test if you have some of these international flights maybe some of these airliners should be on them to check before they are getting on and coming to this country so that we are able to keep it,” the governor said.

“I mean you have seen what happened with the China flight restrictions. That kept a lot of people from ceding the West Coast more and so if we are in a situation you could potentially have from what's coming in I think we're technologically more advanced where there should be something like that. So I've been advocating for that. I've talked with some other governors about it but for Florida clearly that is going to be an issue,” the Florida governor said.

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