Florida Governor Ron DeSantis yesterday (4/28/20) asked President Trump to order passengers aboard international flights from Latin America to be tested for the new coronavirus, before coming to America.
During a joint press conference Governor DeSantis met with the President in the Oval Office.
Governor DeSantis discussed an potential influx of travelers from Brazil and other Latin American countries in requesting that some travelers be tested.
"I think Brazil and some of those places which have a lot of interaction with Miami, you're going to probably see the epidemic increase there as their season changes," DeSantis said. "We could be way on the other side, doing well in Florida, and then you can just have people kind of come in."
The Florida Governor mentioned the availability of Abbott Lab's new rapid coronavirus test as something that might be a possible mechanism for airlines to carry out the passenger testing, before they come to Florida.
"If you have some of these international flights, maybe some of these airlines, it should be on them to check before they are getting on and coming to this country," DeSantis said. "There should be something like that."
President Trump agreed that he may order some people entering the United States to be tested for the coronavirus before boarding international flights. He also mentioned possibly requiring them to wear masks.
"We're probably going to be doing that," the president said. "Brazil has pretty much of an outbreak, as you know. They also went another way than other countries in South America. If you look at the chart, you see what happened unfortunately to Brazil."
President Trump said the United States is working with airlines to set up a testing system.