PRESIDENT Donald Trump said on Tuesday that he might require international travelers to get tested for the coronavirus when they enter the United States.
Trump announced the possibility at the White House during a meeting in the Oval Office with Florida Gov Ron DeSantis to discuss reopening the Sunshine State.
Trump said the government is “looking at it very closely,” and when asked if he meant actual tests or just temperature checks, he said: “Both.”
The president also told DeSantis to “let us know” if he wants travel banned from countries that fly people into the state of Florida.
DeSantis said he wants to see airlines screen passengers who are traveling from areas hit hard by the virus, but said he doesn’t support “necessarily cutting them off.”
The president told DeSantis he could recommend countries that should be “cut off” from entering the US, and specifically pointed out Brazil.
Trump previously restricted travel from world regions earlier this year, including travelers coming from China on January 31, and restrictions on those traveling from Europe on March 11 when the virus was declared a global pandemic.
On Monday, DeSantis said that Florida — a state with more than 21 million residents — would reopen its economy soon, but with “baby steps” that would be “slow and steady.”
The governor said his state meets the White House’s criteria for reopening, but said because of a higher amount of cases in the southern part of the state, Florida might reopen by regions.
“I have five states in one here pretty much already,” DeSantis said. “The outbreaks have been very different.”
The governor said that for most people, the reopening’s first phase will not be much different than what they are experiencing now with schools and nonessential businesses closed and people being encouraged to stay home.
He is expected to begin laying out his plans this week as he reviews recommendations from a task force he appointed that looked at reopening different parts of the economy.
“We are deliberately going to be very methodical, slow and data-driven on this because I think people want to have confidence things are going in a good direction,” DeSantis said.
He said a slow approach would also give the state an opportunity to step in to handle any spikes in the disease that might happen in the future.
“It is really a different ballgame when you compare southeast Florida to the rest” of the state, DeSantis said.
“Pretty much the rest of the state has really handled this very well. There has never been even close to a stress on capacity of health care resources.”
Last week, Florida’s police chiefs association warned against a regional approach to reopening and called for a statewide plan.
They said members of the association fear Floridians would travel to less restrictive areas and potentially overwhelm those areas’ law enforcement.
Others, including the chief of the state’s business licensing division, said a regional approach would be preferable.
As of Tuesday morning, Florida had nearly 33,000 cases of the coronavirus and more than 1,100 deaths.
