White House Considering Suspending All Flights To China Over Coronavirus Crisis - Reports

WASHINGTON (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 29th January, 2020) The Trump administration has alerted US airlines that it is considering halting all civil flights to and from China as the death toll of the coronavirus continues to climb, CNBC reported.

White House officials notified US international air carriers that they are already looking at the possibility of suspending all civil flights into and out of Mainland China, the report said on Tuesday.

United Airlines said earlier in the day that it was canceling dozens of flights to Hong Kong and Mainland China through February, CNBC said.

Other major US airlines including Delta and American, are reportedly not charging cancellation or change fees for travelers who had been flying to China, the report added.

US Health Secretary Alex Azar told reporters earlier on Tuesday that experts from the Washington-based Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) were on standby to leave to China to aid Beijing in battling the virus.

CDC officials also said the agency had reassessed its entry strategy for Americans returning from China and was expanding to 20 airports the screening for the virus, which was initially carried out at five airports and limited to flights coming in from Wuhan, the city at the epicenter of the outbreak.

CNN said the Trump administration was considering the ban on all incoming flight from China as part of a variety of measures to contain the fast-spreading virus that has killed more than 100 people in China and infected another 4,700 across the globe.