(Newser)
– Although the number of passengers dropped dramatically during the pandemic, there were long lines at Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport on Wednesday after a TSA analyzer tested positive for COVID-19. The main security checkpoint at the airport was closed for a biohazard cleanup and travelers were directed to a smaller checkpoint, Fox reports. Authorities say the TSA agent last worked at the post. control from 3:30 am to noon on Tuesday. There have been at least 30 confirmed cases of coronavirus and one death among TSA employees at the airport, reports the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
TSA spokesman Mark Howell says travelers over the holiday weekend should take extra time “in case something like this happens.” He says some lanes reopened Wednesday night and that the full checkpoint should be open Thursday. Howell says the airport, the world’s busiest for passengers, expects to monitor some 27,000 people on Thursday and Friday, 50% more than in recent days, CNN reports. Before the pandemic, more than 250,000 people a day passed through the airport. The number of passengers worldwide fell around 90% as countries closed their borders, but cargo traffic remained stable, making Anchorage International Airport the most active in the world for the movement of flights. for a few days in April and May. (Read more stories from the airport).
.
