Screening for the Chinese coronavirus will soon take place at Newark Liberty International Airport as the United States State Department warns Americans against traveling to China.

Secretary Mike Pompeo says on Twitter that the department was increasing the China Travel Advisory to a level 4, meaning do not travel there. This comes on the same day that the World Health Organization declared a global emergency due to the outbreak.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has added Newark Liberty to the list of airports that would be screening passengers who arrived from China.

 

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RELATED:Travelers arriving from China will be screened for coronavirus at Newark Liberty Int'l Airport  

It was not clear when the screenings would begin. But passengers who spoke with News 12 New Jersey Thursday afternoon said that they were not screened in New Jersey. But they were screened in China.

“They asked me, 'did I ever go to Wuhan.' I didn’t go there. They also asked me did I feel ill or sick,” said Ray Du.

Wuhan is a city in China where many of the infections have been centralized.

The outbreak has many travelers worried about becoming infected. Connie Wu, who just returned from China, said that everyone there was wearing masks.

Many airlines have canceled or limited flights to and from China. Bohong Xiao was at the airport waiting for a friend who was arriving from Beijing on an Air China flight.

“Trust me, no one is going to travel to China right now. My friends had planned to spend Chinese New Year, but they canceled their trips,” he said.

A Fordham University student told News 12 that she was studying in China when the program was suddenly canceled.

“I was going to study aboard there. Then because of everything…we had to come back,” she said.

New Jersey officials have set up a hotline for any concerned resident to get more information about the illness. No cases of coronavirus have been confirmed in New Jersey.