NEW YORK (Reuters) -British Airways and Delta Air Lines will only allow passengers who test negative for the coronavirus to fly to New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport following the emergence of a highly infectious new strain, New York's governor and the airlines said on Monday.
Governor Andrew Cuomo said he had also asked Virgin Atlantic to voluntarily agree to screen passengers on flights to Kennedy airport, saying scores of countries, though not the United States, had already placed restrictions on British travelers.
"If they do not agree voluntarily, then New York State will pursue other options," Cuomo said. British Airways would begin the screening on Tuesday, he said.
Both Delta and British Airways confirmed they had agreed to the new screening.
Virgin did not respond to a request for comment. The airline said early on Monday that it had suspended flights to some destinations, but it was unclear if New York was included.
Dozens of countries closed their borders to Britain on Monday over fears of a highly infectious new coronavirus strain, causing travel chaos.
Cuomo, who shares oversight of the airport through the state agency the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, has said the U.S. government should also stop flights from Britain, though he acknowledged that may come too late to prevent the spread of the new strain.
"I believe intuitively it's already here," he said, "because if it's been flying around the world, it's been here."
The White House coronavirus task force is set to meet on Monday afternoon and will discuss the possibility of temporarily halting inbound passenger flights from the United Kingdom.
U.S. airlines have already drastically scaled back flying to the United Kingdom, as well as the rest of Europe: American Airlines, for example, currently operates just one U.S. daily flight to London out of Dallas.
(Reporting by Jonathan Allen in New York, David Shepardson in Washington and Tracy Rucinski in Chicago; Writing by Jonathan AllenEditing by Chizu Nomiyama, Alistair Bell and Angus MacSwan)
