New China virus prompts passenger screenings at U.S. airports
Travelers in a handful of major U.S. airports may be noticing some unusual activity at international terminals. As of Friday, Jan. 17, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Department of Homeland Security’s Customs and Border Protection (CBP) began conducting enhanced health screenings to detect ill travelers traveling to the United States on direct or connecting flights from Wuhan, China. The CDC said the screenings are in response to an outbreak in China caused by a new and dangerous coronavirus which has already spread to Thailand and Japan.
China health officials report that most of the patients infected with 2019-nCoV have had exposure to a large market where live animals were present, suggesting this is a novel virus that has jumped the species barrier to infect people.