Announcement comes amid mounting concern that not enough controls in place to prevent deadly disease from entering US
Passengers traveling from west Africa will face additional Ebola screenings at five US airports, the White House said on Wednesday, amid mounting concern that not enough controls were in place to prevent the deadly disease from entering the US.
The additional screenings will be carried out by personnel from US Customs and Border Protection, US Coast Guard and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The five airports are: John F Kennedy airport in New York; Liberty airport in Newark; Dulles, outside Washington DC; Chicago O’Hare, and Hartsfield-Jackson in Atlanta.
White House press secretary Josh Earnest said the five airports cover the destinations of 94% of passengers travelling to the US from Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea – the three west African countries worst affected by Ebola. He said that about 150 people a day will face extra screenings.
“The reason this approach makes sense is that it is a way to target additional screening … so that a very small number of people are inconvenienced,” Earnest said.
Passengers flying from the disease-ravaged west African countries already face screenings at their departure airport. “We are adding another layer of security … that will add some confidence,” Earnest said.
The news came as a Dallas hospital announced the death of the first man diagnosed with Ebola in the US. Thomas Eric Duncan travelled from Liberia to the US on 19 September. He did not disclose on a pre-flight questionnaire that he had come into contact with Ebola in Liberia.
It is believed Duncan contracted the disease while helping take his landlord’s 19-year-old daughter to an Ebola treatment ward in Monrovia. She was turned away because the ward was full and the young woman later died at home.
The US department of homeland security deputy secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said the administration is taking a “layered approach” to the Ebola screenings .
Mayorkas said CBP agents have been directed to observe passengers for “overt signs of illnesses at all US ports of entry”. Agents will hand out fact sheets to passengers travelling from the affected countries in west Africa that outline the signs and symptoms of the virus as well as what they should do if symptoms develop within the 21-day incubation period.
“We are also continuing to evaluate the effectiveness of potential additional measures to prevent the spread of Ebola across our borders, and will provide more details on those potential steps very shortly,” he said.
The administration has said repeatedly that it is not considering a ban on travel to or from the west African countries affected by the outbreak there, as it could exacerbate the situation andprevent desperately-needed resources from reaching the region.