The US will soon be tracking travelers entering the country from two countries affected by the Ebola virus, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced Friday. The CDC confirmed these plans after CBS News first reported the details on Friday night.
Beginning next week, the “very small number” of travelers arriving from Guinea and the Democratic Republic of the Congo will be piped to six US airports where their information will be collected and shared with local health officials, the CDC said.
From February 25th nine Cases of Ebola have been reported in Guinea, with five deaths, and eight According to the World Health Organization, cases have been reported in the Democratic Republic of Congo, involving four deaths. The CDC stressed in its statement that “the outbreaks are concentrated in remote areas of these countries” and said that “the risk of Ebola to the United States is extremely low.”
The CDC said airlines “will collect and send passenger information to the CDC for follow-up and public health intervention for all passengers boarding a flight to the US who were in the DRC or Guinea in the past 21 days. This information. will be shared with the US state and local health departments to properly track arrival in their jurisdiction. ”
A source familiar with the decision said that John F. Kennedy in New York, Dulles outside of Washington, DC, O’Hare in Chicago, Hartsfield-Jackson in Atlanta, Los Angeles International Airport, and Newark Liberty outside of New York were all considered measuring points. . The CDC has not specified which airports it plans to use.
This funnel approach is similar to the steps taken in 2014 when travelers from Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea were directed to five of those airports, where they had their temperature measured upon arrival.
According to the CDC, there were more than 28,000 cases of Ebola in West Africa between March 2014 and April 2016, and 11,310 people died.
With the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, it is acknowledged within the CDC that resources for additional monitoring are scarce, said one of those familiar with the discussions. Nearly 30,000 people were monitored by the CDC for Ebola as of 2014, an effort that required hundreds of CDC employees, the CDC said.
“This is a good example of how we need to be prepared for anything in the public health field,” said another source familiar with the discussions about the monitoring before the news was announced.
In 2014, the Obama administration appointed Ron Klain to lead the US Ebola strategy. Klain is now President Biden’s Chief of Staff.
Christina Ruffini and Max Bayer contributed to this story.