NEW YORK, N.Y. (AP) – Federal health officials are significantly expanding the breath of vigilance for Ebola, saying that all travelers who come into the U.S. from Ebola-stricken West African nations will now be monitored for symptoms of illness for 21 days.
The director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said the program will begin Monday and cover visitors as well as aid workers, journalists and other Americans returning from Liberia, Sierra Leone or Guinea.
The program will start in six states: New York, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia, New Jersey and Georgia.
CDC Director Tom Frieden said state and local health officials will check daily for fever or other Ebola symptoms. Passengers will get kits to help them track their temperature and will be told to inform health officials daily of their status.
The announcement came as a new rule went into effect Wednesday that said air travelers from Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea must enter the U.S. through one of five airports doing special screenings and fever checks for Ebola.
A handful of people had been arriving at other airports and missing the checks.
A total of 562 air travelers have been checked in the screenings that started Oct. 11 at John F. Kennedy airport and expanded to Newark Liberty, Chicago’s O’Hare, Washington’s Dulles and Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson last week, Homeland Security officials said.
Four were taken from Washington’s Dulles airport to a local hospital. None had Ebola.
On Tuesday, a West African passenger at Newark airport was hospitalized after reporting symptoms or having a potential exposure to Ebola.
Gov. Chris Christie said Wednesday that there is no indication that the patient has the virus and he anticipates the patient will be released from the hospital after he is interviewed by the Centers for Disease Control.
The Obama administration has been under increasing pressure from lawmakers and the public to ban travel from the three hardest-hit West African nations. President Barack Obama says such a ban could make the situation in those countries worse and make it harder for foreign doctors and aid workers to bring the outbreak under control.
There are no direct flights from the three nations into the U.S.; about 150 fliers per day arrive by various multi-leg routes. About 6 percent of them were coming through airports that don’t have the new Ebola screening, federal officials said.
