Major airlines, U.S. officials reportedly at odds over ways to track passengers for coronavirus
Major airline executives are pushing back against the government's attempt to get the addresses, phone numbers, and emails of international travelers arriving in the United States on specific flights, five people with knowledge of the matter told The Washington Post.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention wants airlines to share this information in order to track people who may have been exposed to the coronavirus, the Post says. U.S. officials say they want this data within 24 hours of a flight, so if a passenger is diagnosed with coronavirus, state and county health authorities can be alerted and contact others who may have been exposed to the highly contagious virus.
Early last month, the Department of Health and Human Services issued a temporary rule requiring airlines pass along certain passenger data to federal officials. Airlines for America, a lobbying group that represents the airline industry, told the Post it shouldn't be up to the airlines to provide any additional data to the government, and they do not have the ability to quickly set up a tracking system or ensure that the passenger information received is accurate. Since the interim rule was announced, airlines have provided some extra information, but it has been "incomplete," one U.S. official told the Post.
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Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.
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