Trump Says He May Order Virus Tests for International Travelers

(Bloomberg) -- President Donald Trump said he’s considering requiring people arriving in the U.S. aboard international flights to be tested for coronavirus infection.

The government is “looking at it very closely,” he said Tuesday in a White House meeting with Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, a fellow Republican. Asked whether he meant temperature checks of arriving passengers or diagnostic tests, he said “both.”

DeSantis said he’d like airlines to screen passengers arriving from coronavirus hotspots but doesn’t endorse “necessarily cutting them off.”

Trump invited DeSantis to recommend countries that should be “cut off” from traveling to the U.S., specifically mentioning Brazil. “You’ll let us know,” he told the governor.

Trump has previously restricted travel from China and Europe in an effort to curb the U.S. outbreak, which has grown to nearly 1 million cases, the largest in the world.

©2020 Bloomberg L.P.