Last Flights From China To Boston Land Before Coronavirus Travel Restrictions
BOSTON (CBS) -- Travelers from China at Logan Airport were happy to touch down in Boston midday Sunday, hours before the nation's travel restrictions set in at 5 p.m. All incoming flights from China will funnel through a handful of airports, excluding Boston, in an effort to combat the spread of the coronavirus.
Thirty-four-year-old Julian Kuo was able to catch the last flight out of China to Boston. "I didn't see a single person without a mask on the plane or basically for the last week in China," said Kuo.
Many passengers said they were screened when they got on the plane and some midflight.
"They do an infrared thermometer. They checked your travel history," explained Kuo.
"Airplanes are a pretty enclosed space so if one of them is at risk, all of us are at risk," said 21-year-old Harvard student Yue Yung, she was on the same flight.
Yung said she plans to spend the next two weeks in her apartment and out of the classroom. "It was a suggestion that was made to all of us returning back from China."
On Saturday, the Boston Public Health Commission announced the first case of coronavirus in Massachusetts. A UMass Boston student in his 20s tested positive for the virus on Friday and has been recovering.
Mayor Marty Walsh said, "There's no threat at all right now in the city. It is still about getting information out to people and letting people know what the virus is all about, I think it's still an unknown for a lot of people, precautions you take."