The Eastern Iowa Airport to Start Mandatory Health Screenings Jan. 25

Jan. 18—CEDAR RAPIDS — Mandatory health screenings at The Eastern Iowa Airport will be in place Jan. 25 for all passengers following changes in Federal Aviation Administration guidance.

Installation of the primary health screening area began Monday and is expected to be complete Tuesday. The secondary screening area is already set up.

Airport Director Marty Lenss said the program is a step "to make sure our guests and travelers throughout Eastern Iowa feel good about flying CID" during the pandemic.

The airport and Mercy Medical Center initially unveiled the program in July with hopes of it being ready in early September, but the FAA barred airports from using CARES Act funding or airport revenue for health screenings in August.

"This is a first-of-its-kind program," Lenss said. "So the FAA, understandably, needed to do a thorough review of the program to make sure that it is compliant with federal revenue use policies."

After the FAA updated its Runway to Recovery guidance in December, Lenss said the airport and Mercy Medical Center proceeded at "full speed" to implement the program.

The screening uses a two-step approach. Each passenger will undergo a temperature check and a couple health questions, which Lenss anticipates taking 10 seconds per passenger.

Without a fever, the passenger will proceed directly to the security checkpoint. If there's a fever of at least 100.4 degrees, passengers go through a secondary screening to determine if there's another cause for the fever.

Any airports who work after the security checkpoint also will be required to go through the health screening. FAA rules prohibit incoming passengers from being screened.

The FAA's Runway to Recovery guidance said passenger health screenings "should only be part of a broader set of measures" used to prevent the spread of coronavirus in air travel.

"Certainly, we recognize it's not a silver bullet," Lenss said. "We've never viewed it that way. But we view it as one more layer in a multilayered approach to trying to slow the spread of COVID-19."

The Eastern Iowa Airport has been using electrostatic sprayers and was the first Iowa airport to require masks.

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