United Airlines announces a program to collect customer contact data on all flights to assist health officials in contact tracing in the effort to contain COVID-19.
The program, which will cover both domestic and international flights, follows a similar announcement earlier this month by rival Delta Air Lines, but the Delta program only pertains to international flights.
The program, which is supported by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, will be voluntary for passengers.
Consumers who opt in will be asked at check-in for contact details such as an email address, phone number and address where they can be reached once they arrive.
Such details “were previously difficult for the CDC to obtain in real-time,” United says in a press release.
Illustrative: A Dreamliner 787-10 pulls up to a gate in Newark Liberty International Airport in Newark, New Jersey, in 2019 (AP Photo/Seth Wenig, File)
“Contact tracing is a fundamental component of the nation’s public health response strategy for controlling the spread of communicable diseases of public health concern,” says CDC Director Robert Redfield in the press release.
“Collection of contact information from air travelers will greatly improve the timeliness and completeness of information for COVID-19 public health follow-up and contact tracing.”
— AFP
We can't do this work alone.
The war with Iran has been draining for all of us in Israel. But when I heard about a high casualty incident – ballistic missile impacts in Arad and Dimona that left nearly 200 people wounded – I drank a cup of coffee, packed a bag, and headed south.
There, I spoke with Shilgit, the head of an after-school program for underprivileged youth. Standing outside her destroyed center, Shilgit said it was a miracle that no children were hurt and spoke about the community coming together in the hours since.
As a Times of Israel reporter, I’m committed to telling stories of resilience like Shilgit’s. But my colleagues and I can't do this alone. If you value work like this,please consider joining our reader support group, The Times of Israel Community. Your financial support is essential to keep real human reporting like this going.
We’re really pleased that you’ve read X Times of Israel articles in the past month.
That’s why we started the Times of Israel - to provide discerning readers like you with must-read coverage of Israel and the Jewish world.
So now we have a request. Unlike other news outlets, we haven’t put up a paywall. But as the journalism we do is costly, we invite readers for whom The Times of Israel has become important to help support our work by joining The Times of Israel Community.
For as little as $6 a month you can help support our quality journalism while enjoying The Times of Israel AD-FREE, as well as accessing exclusive content available only to Times of Israel Community members.
Thank you, David Horovitz, Founding Editor of The Times of Israel
From 
