More than 1,000 TSA employees have tested positive for coronavirus

The president of the TSA officers’ union said the agency is still struggling to keep its workforce safe during the pandemic

By Ian Duncan
7/9/2020, 7:04:38 p.m.

More than 1,000 employees at the Transportation Security Administration have tested positive for the coronavirus, according to figures the agency released Thursday. Nearly all of them are security officers who have continued to work screening passengers at airports throughout the pandemic.

Hydrick Thomas, president of the union that represents the officers, said the figure is a reflection of the agency’s ongoing struggle to do enough to protect its employees. Air travel numbers, which collapsed in the early stages of the coronavirus outbreak, are steadily climbing even as the virus is surging again: Nearly 2.7 million people traveled over the Fourth of July holiday weekend.

“Right now they’re bringing people back to work and the social distance is not in total effect,” Thomas said. “Employees are still complaining there’s too many of them in one area.”

In all, TSA says 1,018 employees have tested positive. Its 50,000-strong force of screening officers has borne the brunt, accounting for 907 of the cases. Six employees have died, as has a contractor.

Thomas had long worked with the first agency employee to die of the disease, Newark airport K-9 officer Francis Boccabella, who was known at work as “Big Frank.” TSA said 39-year-old Boccabella, who had previously worked at JFK International Airport in New York, died April 2.

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