Passengers on TAP flights, including Portuguese, Angolans and Brazilians, complained about the "long waiting time" in line for the respective control, but others considered the measure indispensable for their safety.
Half a dozen technicians from the Ministry of Health, fully equipped with masks, gloves, gowns and thermal cameras, mobile and fixed, make up the health team, climbed in shifts, for screening each passenger.
The thermal camera installed in a compulsory passage counter follows the mobility of each passenger to control their temperature and then goes on to other administrative procedures.
The process for the Portuguese Mário Eurda "is necessary", but, he observed, "is badly done", mainly "due to the delay" in the long queue, where also agents of the Migration and Foreigners Service (SME) intervene for the bureaucratic control.
To Lusa, the Angolan architect Natividade da Silva spoke of "confusion" in the screening process, where "a lot of time is wasted", questioning the usefulness of filling out health forms during the flight.
"I know it's a worldwide emergency (the Covid-19), but I pass through several international airports, I come from Lisbon and there's no such control that's strict, but unnecessary, because there are other ways of doing the control without slowing people down", he said.
In the slow movement of the long queue of passengers, Angolan citizen Nzima Victor told Lusa that the trip went smoothly and praised the screening process.
"It's good for the country not to have any problems and then we submit," he stressed.
A giant poster on the care and means of transmission of the coronavirus, with its epicenter in China, is displayed in the landing room, as well as a video with the same purpose whose figure is the Minister of Health, Silvia Lutucuta.
For Portuguese pilot Frederico de Sá, who questions whether the control measures stem from the "fear or seriousness" of the Covid-19 epidemic, the screening process, although "a little longer than normal", is going well.
Among the passengers who disembarked this Friday in Luanda via TAP was the Brazilian Marcela Mendoza, who pointed out the need for border screening in order to guard against the possible spread of the virus.
For his part, the Portuguese businessman Carlos Martins also valued the security measures of the international airport of Luanda, considering that they "are always welcome", saying "willing to accept it".
"Because it's our security that is at stake and I think everything is within what is expected and is going very well," he said.
In addition to health technicians, in some departments of Luanda's international airport employees are also wearing protective masks.
The Covid-19 epidemic, which can cause respiratory infections such as pneumonia, has already caused more than 3,450 deaths and infected more than 97,000 people in 85 countries, including nine in Portugal.
In addition to the 3,042 deaths in Mainland China, there are reported fatalities in Iran, Italy, South Korea, Japan, France, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Australia, Thailand, the United States, the Philippines, Spain, the United Kingdom and Iraq.
The WHO has declared the Covid-19 outbreak to be a "very high risk" international public health emergency.
