Importantly this is from Monday, March 2nd. A lot has happened over the last five days. But TPM Reader RW reports that he was not screened at all when returning from Milan, Italy, which is the epicenter of the outbreak in Italy …
I returned to the US from Italy on Monday after two weeks there. I thought I would share our travel experience. Late on Sunday, we found out that United had cancelled our direct flight from Malpensa (Milan) to Newark. My wife called up United and was able, fairly easily, to rebook us on a Lufthansa flight to Munich, followed by a United flight to Dulles.
In Munich, there was a superficial screening by airline staff (a couple of questions), after which we went to the boarding area. at Dulles, at the passport check, the agent asked my origin, and I replied Milan. She didn’t blink, and asked me if I’d been to China in the past month. Since I hadn’t, she passed me through. That was the sum total of the screening. Not a whole lotta of containment going on.
RW’s report squares with others, like that of TPM Reader GK on March 5th. Screening isn’t a panacea at this point. But no mention even to be on-guard for symptoms seems like a problem.
