Coronavirus screenings underway at Boston’s Logan Airport, CDC says

Temperature scanners are used to screen passengers for fever with upon their arrival at Kuwait international airport in Kuwait City on Wednesday.AFP via Getty Images

Screenings for the coronavirus, the newly discovered virus that emerged in China and has sickened thousands, are underway at Boston’s Logan International Airport, a spokesman for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Tuesday night.

Michael Patronik, a CDC spokesman, said officials were screening passengers on flights that came from any country that has confirmed coronavirus cases. He said passengers coming off such flights will be given a questionnaire about their travel history and CDC staff will look for signs of illness in the passengers and take their temperatures.

If a passenger has any symptoms or fever, they will be further evaluated by a CDC public health officer, he said. Sick travelers who are “reasonably believed to have been either infected or exposed” to coronavirus will transferred to a hospital, where they will be placed in isolation and assessed further.

A newly discovered coronavirus has sickened more than 6,000 on mainland China and elsewhere, with at least 132 deaths reported so far. The pneumonia-like illness was first identified in late December in Wuhan, the capital city of central China’s Hubei province.

Logan sees three daily non-stop flights from Shanghai, Beijing, and Hong Kong, according to a Massachusetts Port Authority spokeswoman.

Two people from New Hampshire who recently traveled to Wuhan City, China, have become ill and are being tested for the virus.

Logan is among several American airports where the CDC screenings will take place, according to Patronik. Other airports include those serving the cities of Anchorage, Atlanta, Chicago, Dallas, Detroit, El Paso, Honolulu, Houston, Los Angeles. Miami, Minneapolis, New York, Newark, Philadelphia, San Diego, San Francisco, San Juan, and Washington D.C.

A Massport spokeswoman could not confirm the CDC screenings were taking place on Tuesday night. Massport oversees Logan. Patronik said he did not know specifically when the screens started at the airport.

Material from the Associated Press was used in this report.