The virtual format for the April BOCC meeting didn’t impede the county commissioners from getting important work done during the shutdown period. Early in the day, they called on county director of airports Richard Strickland for an unofficial staff report, a week after county officials had issued a directive to screen all passengers arriving at both Keys airports.

As of midnight on April 8, passengers aboard both commercial and private flights were to be screened at Key West International Airport and Florida Keys Marathon International Airport, according to a directive from Monroe County issued on April 7. “Passengers will have their temperature taken, provide contact information and be ordered to self-quarantine for 14 days. Violators can be jailed for up to 60 days and fined $500. The screenings are to be performed in a separate area by personnel from the health department, county fire rescue or personnel from any municipal fire department,” the county directive states.

“While you’re on the hook, can you give people a little update since it’s been such a topic of conversation in our communities?” Mayor Heather Carruthers asked Strickland during the April 15 virtual BOCC meeting.

Strickland noted that his department was working closely with the county attorney, county administrator, Florida Department of Transportation and the FAA to “do the right thing with aviation and screen some passengers coming from out of state.” 

The mayor pointed out that the local emergency directive in place requires screening of all passengers, irrespective of their origin city. Chief Jim Callahan, the director of the county’s Emergency Services Division, agreed and provided further clarification.

Callahan said, “I’m also under the impression we’re doing everyone coming in, at both airports, commercial and private. I’ll follow up and get you the information you need, Richard.”

The BOCC holds its first virtual meeting via Zoom, broadcast publicly via MCTV, on April 15. TIFFANY DUONG/Keys Weekly

Carruthers summarized the takeaway direction for the airports. She said, “Everyone should be screened. If you’re screening people in a car, you should screen them in a plane too.”

Strickland’s staff tracks out-of-state inbound flights at both the Marathon and Key West airports. When those planes land, he said, his staff reach them and pass on the Florida Department of Health’s recommended 14-day self-quarantine procedure. 

In Key West, commercial passengers from out-of-state origin cities are physically screened and provide contact information to local officials. Private plane travelers arriving to both Key West and Marathon on interstate flights receive a paper copy of Gov. Ron DeSantis’ executive order to self-quarantine for 14-days if arriving from a “hot spot.” 

Strickland emphasized the balance he hoped to strike between keeping the community safe and keeping airports open to move needed supplies via air travel. 

Carruthers quickly said, “I don’t know why we aren’t doing the same thing for all commercial flights, even though they are from within the state.”

As he has explained in the past, Strickland said, “The governor’s executive order started with the New York area and then included other hot spots. It led to us screening out-of-state flights into the county.” 

Strickland also explained why interstate passengers from other cities in Florida aren’t screened when they arrive at either Marathon or Key West airport: “I am not counting flights that originate within Florida,” he said. “Passengers on a Miami flight, for example, would have already been screened at Miami airport before getting on the plane to Key West.”

“Some of us might consider Miami a hot spot,” said Carruthers. 

Commissioner Michelle Coldiron said, “If we have a checkpoint to keep hotspots out of our county, I think it has to roll over to private planes coming into Marathon.”

“And Key West!” added Carruthers. “I think this is important; we’ve all been under the impression that airports have been following this.”

Marathon Mayor Steve Cook has also expressed his concern about screening loopholes in the process. He agreed the governor’s order of screening of commercial flight passengers should apply to private flights as well, to tackle the spread of COVID-19 from “hot spots.”

“If people have the funds and means to get away from a problem, they will take every chance they can to do so,” Cook has said. 

Commissioner David Rice noted that several of the flights in Marathon not being screened are actually “instruction” flights that take off and land in Marathon, without ever touching down elsewhere. “I think that gives the impression of more aircraft activity at that airport than is of concern,” he said.

Carruthers said, “And, I hope so. Those folks should be able to show they clearly own a house here and live here, anyway, so they will be okay.”

Unlike the motorist checkpoint at the top of the Keys, the airport screenings check for fever and contact information, but do not require arriving passengers to show the same proof of residency, property ownership or work obligations in the Keys that are required of motorists.