Officials from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) suggested that testing people for the coronavirus before they board domestic flights could help reduce transmission of COVID-19 as Delta Air Lines CEO Ed Bastian slammed it as a ‘horrible idea’.
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CDC Director Rochelle Walensky on Monday said during a press briefing that requiring air travelers to receive a negative COVID-19 test before boarding could be ‘another mitigation measure to try and decrease the spread’.
She said that that additional screening at places where people gather like airports could help detect more asymptomatic cases.
However, Walensky did not say if the CDC will be moving forward with such a policy, which the Biden administration has previously said it is ‘actively considering’.
Late last month, Dr Marty Cetron, the director for the Division of Global Migration and Quarantine at the CDC, was asked about whether new domestic travel testing requirements might be employed.
Cetron replied that there were ‘conversations that are ongoing and looking at what the types and locations of testing might be… We’re actively looking at it’.
His remark came days after President Joe Biden directed US agencies to make recommendations to ‘impose additional public health measures for domestic travel’ and to consider new requirements for people crossing land borders.
At the time, administration officials said that could include requiring negative COVID-19 tests before flying domestically.
‘We realize that there’s been a dramatic evolution and increase in both testing platforms and testing capacity. I think this is a really important part of our toolkit to combat this pandemic,’ Cetron said.
But Bastian, Delta’s CEO, believes that requiring negative tests for domestic flights could be a nightmare and hopes the administration doesn’t consider it.
‘The level of travel that we are carrying domestically in the US – not just Delta, but across the industry – would be substantially reduced from today’s already low levels if domestic testing was required.
‘And we don’t have the facility or the technology or capabilities to be administering or monitoring domestic testing,’ he said.
Currently, the CDC requires nearly all international air travelers aged 2 and older to present a negative coronavirus test taken within three calendar days of travel or proof of COVID-19 recovery to enter the United States.
In discussions with airline officials, the CDC has said it is considering requiring domestic testing, too. For now, masks are the only requirement for domestic air travel within the US.
In another interview with CNN, Bastian said that such testing measures ‘will not keep domestic flyers safer’ since planes have hospital quality air filters on board, which help reduce the chance of transmission.
Bastian also predicted that ‘it would set us back another year in the recovery’.
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Delta in 2020 lost nearly $12.4 billion as it reeled from the coronavirus, and its demand is expected to remain at only 10 percent to 15 percent of normal levels.
On Monday, Delta Air Lines said it will continue to block some seats on all flights through spring break and Easter to provide a bit more space between passengers.
The Atlanta-based airline announced that it will limit capacity on flights through April 30.
Delta said it will block middle seats in most cabins although groups of three or more passengers can choose to sit together.
During the early days of the pandemic, several US airlines blocked middle seats, although United Airlines never did.
The others that temporarily limited the number of seats for sale have since dropped the practice, at least in the main cabin, including Southwest, JetBlue, Alaska and American.
In addition to Bastian’s warnings, two senior Boeing executives have said that if the White House requires COVID-19 tests before traveling on domestic passenger airline flights, it could pose significant economic harm.
‘Imposing such a burden on the already financially beleaguered airline industry has the potential for severe unintended consequences that will ripple across the entire economy,’ Boeing Commercial Airplanes Chief Executive Stan Deal and Chief Aerospace Safety Officer Michael Delaney wrote in a letter.
The letter, seen by Reuters, was sent Friday and had not previously been reported.
Boeing and the White House declined to comment on the letter.
The federal government has been mulling additional measures to fight the spread of the coronavirus but has made no decisions on adding new requirements on domestic air travel.
CDC officials have repeatedly urged Americans not to travel unless necessary.
Officials told Reuters there is no specific proposal currently being vetted by the administration and a new meeting with airlines could take place late this week.
The Boeing letter questioned the air travel emphasis if the CDC’s focus is the ‘corridor’ around travel rather than aircraft.
‘If this broader travel journey is, in fact, the main concern of the CDC, then science would dictate all aspects of travel should receive similar scrutiny including hotels, car rental agencies, mass transit, and restaurants,’ the letter said.
Amtrak Chief Executive Bill Flynn told reporters Friday that he was unsure how requiring testing before train trips ‘would actually work and how it could actually be enforced’.
The Boeing letter raised concerns about testing costs and availability, noting costs could easy top average base airfare.
‘If a testing mandate is prescribed by the administration, funding should also be provided to comply,’ Boeing said.
On Thursday, a top aviation union leader warned mandatory domestic COVID-19 testing requirements could devastate the airline industry and potentially lead to bankruptcies.
Representative Peter DeFazio, the chair of the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, raised concerns about domestic testing requirements in a meeting with Biden on Friday, a spokeswoman for DeFazio confirmed.
Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg told Reuters last week decisions about domestic testing will be ‘guided by facts and by science’.
‘Safety is our bottom line because we think that’s not only the right answer for passengers and workers but ultimately it’s the right economic answer too – so that there’s full confidence among the traveling public,’ Buttigieg said.
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