Five hundred people who work for the Transportation Security Administration have tested positive for COVID-19, including four people who died from the disease, the agency said Wednesday.
Of the 500 who tested positive, 208 TSA employees recovered from the illness, the agency said in a statement.
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Almost 40 percent of positive cases were found in employees working in the three major airports serving the greater New York City region.
At John F. Kennedy International Airport, in Queens, N.Y., 105 employees tested positive for the disease caused by the coronavirus. At LaGuardia Airport, also in Queens, N.Y., 32 tested positive. Newark Liberty International Airport, in Newark, N.J., had 56 positive cases.
Other airports with the highest number of cases included Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport (27), Miami International Airport (18), O’Hare International Airport, in Chicago, Ill., (15), and Denver International Airport (17).
Major west coast airports had fewer cases, according to the TSA.
Los Angeles International Airport had 11 positive cases, while Seattle-Tacoma International Airport had six. San Francisco International Airport had two.
The data provided by TSA did not include employees of the agency who do not work in airports or who have limited interaction with the public.
Air travel in the U.S. has cratered because of the coronavirus pandemic. Airlines for America, an industry lobbying group that represents Southwest and other major carriers, said earlier this month that passenger volume is down 97 percent to a level not seen since 1954.
