The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) issued an Order1 (Order) requiring passengers to provide, and airlines and other aircraft operators to collect, contact information for passengers before their arrival into the United States from a foreign country. Airlines and other aircraft operators must retain the information for 30 days, and, unless otherwise transmitted to the United States via existing DHS data systems, transmit the information to CDC upon request. The purpose of collecting this information is to identify and locate passengers who may have been exposed to a person with a communicable disease for public health follow-up.
The designated information includes the following elements: full name, address while in the United States, primary contact phone number, secondary or emergency contact phone number, email address, date of birth, airline name, flight number, city of departure, departure date and time, city of arrival, arrival date and time, and seat number. These elements are necessary for identifying and locating passengers and crewmembers and enable public health officials to follow up with travelers after arrival, either because these travelers may have been exposed before they traveled or because during travel they were possibly exposed to a person known to have a communicable disease that poses a public health threat, such as COVID-19.
Timely public health follow-up requires health officials to have prompt access to accurate and complete contact information for travelers traveling into, or transiting through, the United States. Inaccurate or incomplete contact information decreases the ability of public health authorities to protect the health of travelers and the public. The best way to ensure airline passengers’ contact information is available in real time is to collect the information before they board a flight.
CDC intends to use the designated information only for public health follow-up, such as education, treatment, prophylaxis, or other appropriate public health interventions, including travel restrictions. CDC will maintain and use the “designated information” called for in this Order in accordance with the Privacy Act of 1974 (5 U.S.C. 552a) and its applicable System of Record Notice.2 As noted in the System of Records Notice, CDC retains contact tracing information until the contact tracing investigation is complete or no longer than 12 months. Personally identifiable information may be used and shared only for lawful purposes, including with authorized personnel of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, state and local public health departments, and other cooperating authorities, as authorized by law. CDC will retain, use, delete, or otherwise destroy the “designated information” in accordance with the Federal Records Act, applicable Privacy Act System of Records notice, and other applicable law.
If “designated information” is transmitted by airlines via an established DHS data system, DHS will integrate the data into the DHS Automated Targeting System (ATS)3 and use it for passenger screening. DHS may use the data for any use permitted by the ATS System of Records Notice (SORN)4 and will retain it for a minimum of fifteen years, in accordance with its SORN.
This Order will cease to be in effect on the earlier of (1) the date that is two incubation periods after the last known case of COVID-19, or (2) when the Secretary of Health and Human Services (Secretary) determines there is no longer a need for the interim final rule (IFR)5 published in the Federal Register on February 7, 2020. The Secretary will publish a document in the Federal Register announcing the expiration date of the IFR.
5 https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2020/02/12/2020-02731/control-of-communicable-diseases-foreign-quarantine
| File Type | application/vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.wordprocessingml.document |
| Author | Brouillette, Colleen (CDC/DDID/NCEZID/DGMQ) |
| File Modified | 0000-00-00 |
| File Created | 2022-05-27 |