Sydney Reynolds. Quinnipiac Junior, FCO → JFK (3/2/2020)
Sydney Reynolds Quinnipiac University, Junior
“I did not face any screenings or questions when I flew home, or when I landed. Neither airport had any type of temperature check and they didn’t ask what part of Italy I was in or what countries I’ve visited. It’s so weird because multiple Americans told me Trump and Pence were saying that there would be security at the borders. I didn’t face any. Pence then said it would be rolled out within 12 hours. So I texted my friends who flew home later than me… they faced nothing either. …right now, the promises given by our administration to contain the virus are empty.”
“My friend who flew home yesterday had health screening done only in the Roman airports. So there are still no changes, to my knowledge, to precautions in US airports”
Olivia Giusti, Junior at UMass Amherst, FCO → GVA → BOS (3/1/2020)
Olivia Giusti. UMass Amherst, Junior
“I had to be checked for coronavirus before in and out of security in Italy. They check our temperature. This has happened to me every flight in and out of Italy I have taken since I started this experience. In Italy, since the very beginning, they checked my temperature every time I went in and out of the country. You walk up to a thing of a bunch of people sitting in a row, looking at you and you have to stop in front of them. They have a little screen and they look down at it and it has a camera and heat map for your face. So, they shine the camera at you and can tell if you have a temperature that way.
“ …When I got to Switzerland, they only asked me if I had been to China in the last 14 days. I obviously said no. When I landed in Boston though it was nothing. The woman in customs asked where I was coming from I said Rome, and she gave me back my passport and told me to have a nice day. She literally asked me nothing.”
Emma Dombrowski University of New Haven, Sophomore
Emma Dombrowski, University of New Haven, Sophomore, FLR→ JFK (3/3/2020)
“I flew home with some of the other students and nothing was done as far as seeing if we were sick when we landed.”
“There’s less of a focus on people who aren’t coming from China.”
“My temperature was taken at the airport before getting on the plane but nothing was done after that. We were just free to go basically.”
“There weren’t any changes that I saw within the airport…you couldn’t tell that there was a virus spreading or anything…it was very odd to me.”
Key of Airport Codes
BOS = Boston, Massachusetts
FCO = Rome, Italy
FLR = Florence, Italy
GVA = Geneva, Switzerland
JFK = New York City