The John F. Kennedy International Airport was nearly deserted Thursday morning as only a few passengers waited for their flights out of New York City.
Daigo Takayama, 35, who was visiting the Big Apple, shared photos with the DailyMail.com showing empty terminals at the airport.
‘I have been traveling my entire life, in and out of airports constantly. I have never seen JFK airport so empty,’ Takayama told DailyMail.com.
‘It feels like I am in a small town airport. Only about 30 per cent of people are wearing masks and the others don’t seem stressed by the possible danger of the situation,’ he added.
Takayama shared a photo of himself wearing a mask as he waited for his flight with Japan Airlines on Thursday.
His photos showed about eight people standing and sitting in JFK’s Terminal 1. Restaurants and shops were abandoned and there weren’t any long lines at the Starbucks.
Daigo Takayama, 35, who was visiting the Big Apple, shared photos with the Dailymail.com showing an empty Terminal 1 at the John F. Kennedy International Airport on Thursday morning
Restaurants (left) were abandoned and there weren’t any long lines at the airport’s Starbucks (right) Thursday morning
The airport’s shops were also empty Thursday morning as the fear of catching the coronavirus spreads through the US
There were no long lines at the check-in counters (pictured, check-in and self check-in) for most of the airport’s airlines
Takayama wasn’t supposed to leave New York until next Monday, but out of fear of being stuck in the US due to the more than 600 confirmed cases of coronavirus and 16 deaths that have been reported in Japan, he hopped on a flight to Nagoya, Japan, a few days early.
He said he went to the airport on Wednesday hoping he wouldn’t be charged for changing his flight after making the decision to leave early because he wasn’t sure how Japan’s handling of the virus would progress in the next few days, referring to the US travel ban and Italy’s lockdown.
Italy’s prime minister, Giuseppe Conte, placed the entire country on lockdown on Monday in an attempt to stop the spread of the virus.
President Donald Trump announced on Wednesday night that flights from Europe, excluding the UK and Ireland, would be suspended for 30 days beginning midnight on Friday.
Trump’s decision to impose the ban on most Europeans entering the US sparked ‘bedlam’ at airports across the continent, with some travelers paying as much as $20,000 for plane tickets home.
Tourists from the US, who were left shrouded in confusion by the details of the proposal, scrambled to airports in the early hours of Thursday morning uncertain about how the ban would impact their attempts to fly back home.
Confusion reigned over exactly how it would be implemented – including how the cut-off would apply across time zones and which routes Americans would be allowed to use to get home.
Vice President Mike Pence fueled the coronavirus chaos on Thursday by saying all Americans returning from coronavirus ‘epicenter’ Europe will be asked to self-quarantine for 14 days upon arrival and be funneled through one of 13 airports, without confirming if they would receive COVID-19 tests or saying where those ports were.
There more than 1,300 cases of the virus in the US and 38 people have died (depicted above)
Journalist Mike McIntire tweeted from Charles de Gaulle airport: ‘Bedlam at U.S.-bound airlines at CDG in Paris early this a.m., as Americans pay as much as $20,000 for last-minute flights.’
The White House has also not yet explained what will be done, if anything, to stop people traveling from other countries in Europe to the UK or Ireland then boarding flights to the US to work around the ban.
There are already more than 1,300 cases of the virus in the US and 38 people have died.
The State Department also warned Americans against all non-essential travel abroad, raising the prospect of mandatory quarantines and further bans that could leave people stranded.
Trump’s announcement has disrupted the travel plans of tens of thousands of people and hit airlines already reeling from the coronavirus outbreak, which has been branded a pandemic.
Tourists from the US, who were left shrouded in confusion by the details of the proposal, scrambled to airports in the early hours of Thursday morning uncertain about how the ban would impact their attempts to fly back home. People wait to check in for a flight to Chicago at the United Airlines counter at Brussels International Airport on Thursday
Paris Charles de Gaulle airport, France: People wearing protective face masks line up at the Air France ticketing desk inside Terminal 2E at Paris Charles de Gaulle airport in Roissy on Thursday
COVID-19 has killed more than 4,600 people worldwide and there are still more than 125,000 confirmed cases globally.
Pence repeated previous claims that the government had asked private labs including Lab Corp and Quest Diagnostics to speed up the production of their tests, after a wave of criticism over how long the CDC was taking to get theirs off the ground.
But he failed to address some key specifics including how or if the ban will impact trade and imports from Europe, or how many people will likely become infected in America despite the drastic new measures.
World health officials have already undermined Trump’s plan. They say it will not stop the virus from spreading and that the administration should be focusing its efforts on the healthcare system, which will likely buckle under the strain of the pandemic if it reaches the proportions seen in China and Italy.
Also on Wednesday night, the NBA suspended its season indefinitely in light of the president’s announcement, postponing all games.
The decision – the first of its kind – came after it was revealed that Utah Jazz center Rudy Gobert had tested positive for the virus.
Mass gatherings have not yet been banned in the US but in Europe, football games have all been scrapped until further notice.