Coronavirus chaos at US airports: Medical screenings jam up returning Americans

WASHINGTON: Chaos gripped major US airports Sunday as Americans returning from coronavirus-hit European countries overwhelmed authorities attempting to process the surge. Frustrated passengers complained of hours-long lines, crowded and unsanitary conditions and general disarray in the system for screening people for symptoms of the virus.

“Very close quarters,” Ann Lewis Schmidt told CNN, describing conditions at Chicago´s O´Hare International Airport (ORD). “So if we didn´t have the virus before, we have a great chance of getting it now!” Schmidt said. US airports have been hit with a flood of Americans, many of them students, since restrictions on travel from Europe ordered by US President Donald Trump took effect at midnight Friday.

The United States on Saturday extended the ban on travel from Europe, South Korea and China to Britain and Ireland. Only US citizens and legal residents are being allowed in from those countries, and they are then supposed to self-quarantine for 14 days.

Most Malaysia coronavirus cases linked to Islamic gathering: Malaysia said Sunday that more than half the country’s 428 coronavirus cases were linked to an international Islamic gathering held last month. The Southeast Asian nation announced a spike of 190 new infections over the weekend, mostly linked to a global Islamic event attended by almost 20,000 people. “Of the 428 cases, 243 are participants from the religious event in Sri Petaling mosque,” Noor Hisham Abdullah, director-general of the health ministry, told AFP.

Authorities said participants at the gathering from February 27 to March 1 came from Bangladesh, Brunei, the Philippines, Singapore and Thailand. Around 14,500 of the participants were Malaysian.

Brunei reported 10 new cases on Saturday, raising the total to 50, most in people who attended the Malaysia gathering. Singapore has also announced cases linked to the event. On Friday, Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin warned Malaysia of a second wave of infections spread and urged people to avoid mass gatherings. Ahmad Farouk, a lecturer at Monash University, told AFP that authorities should shut down mosques for at least two weeks to contain the spread of the virus.

Austria bans gatherings of more than five people: Austria tightened restrictions on public life on Sunday, banning gatherings of more than five people and restricting any movement to that which is absolute necessary, saying police would enforce the rules in a bid to halt the spread of coronvirus. The tougher measures were decided at an extraordinary session of parliament, during which Chancellor Sebastian Kurz called on the population to self-isolate, only move out of doors when absolutely necessary and limit contacts to “the people they live with”.