The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced on Friday that travelers will soon be monitoring two countries entering the country through the Ebola virus. The CDC confirmed these plans after CBS News first reported the details on Friday night.
The CDC said the “very small” number of travelers arriving from Guinea and the Democratic Republic of Congo would be diverted to six U.S. airports from next week.
From 25 February nine Ebola cases have been reported in Guinea, resulting in five deaths, and eight cases were reported in the Democratic Republic of Congo, according to the World Health Organization, resulting in four deaths. The CDC stressed in its statement that “the outbreaks are in remote areas of these countries”, saying “the risk of Ebola for the United States is extremely low.”
The CDC said airlines “will collect passenger information and transmit it to CDC for the follow-up and intervention of public health for all passengers following a flight to the US who have been in the DRC or Guinea in the previous 21 days. This information will be shared with the US state and local health departments to properly monitor arrivals in their jurisdiction. ‘
A source familiar with the decision said John F. Kennedy in New York, Dulles outside Washington, DC, O’Hare in Chicago, Hartsfield-Jackson in Atlanta, Los Angeles International Airport and Newark Liberty outside New York are all considered as monitoring points. . The CDC did not specify which airports it was planning.
This funnel approach is similar to the steps taken in 2014 when travelers from Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea were sent to five of the airports, where they had their temperature taken on arrival.
Between March 2014 and April 2016, there were more than 28,000 cases of Ebola in West Africa and according to the CDC, 11,310 people died.
According to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, there is recognition in the CDC that resources for additional monitoring are thin, according to one of the people familiar with the discussions. Nearly 30,000 people have been monitored by the CDC for Ebola since 2014, an effort that requires hundreds of CDC staff, the CDC said.
“This is an excellent example of how we should be prepared for anything in the public health field,” another source familiar with the discussions said about the monitoring before the news was announced.
In 2014, the Obama administration appointed Ron Klain to lead the U.S. Ebola strategy. Klain is now the chief of staff of President Biden.
Christina Ruffini and Max Bayer contributed to this story.