WASHINGTON — Anyone flying to the United States from Ebola-affected countries in West Africa must enter the country through one of five airports screening for the disease, Homeland Security Secretary Jeh C. Johnson said Tuesday as the Obama administration stepped up precautions to stop the spread of the virus.
Last week, the government instituted temperature checks for West Africans arriving at Kennedy International in New York, Newark Liberty International, Washington Dulles International, O’Hare International in Chicago, and Hartsfield-Jackson International in Atlanta. The five airports already account for 94 percent of all arrivals from the affected countries, Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea. A fever is one symptom of the disease and an indication that the person could be infectious.
“We currently have in place measures to identify and screen anyone at all land, sea and air ports of entry into the United States who we have reason to believe has been present in Liberia, Sierra Leone or Guinea in the preceding 21 days,” Mr. Johnson said in a written statement.
Mr. Johnson said airlines were working to reroute passengers who had been scheduled to arrive at other airports.
Representative Robert W. Goodlatte of Virginia, the chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, said the administration must do more to protect Americans. “President Obama has a real solution at his disposal under current law and can use it at any time to temporarily ban foreign nationals from entering the United States from Ebola-ravaged countries,” Mr. Goodlatte said.
The temperature checks began more than a week ago at the five airports. But experts cautioned that a temperature check on arrival would almost certainly not have detected that Thomas Eric Duncan had Ebola before he entered the country from Liberia. The disease typically incubates for eight to 10 days before symptoms, including fever, develop.
American health officials believe Mr. Duncan did not have a fever when he arrived in the United States, a view seconded by his family. Mr. Duncan died of the disease on Oct. 8 at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital in Dallas. Two nurses who treated Mr. Duncan — Nina Pham and Amber Joy Vinson — are now being treated for Ebola.
On Monday, officials in Dallas announced that 43 of the people who had direct or indirect contact with Mr. Duncan were declared Ebola-free and could return to work and school. Another group is still being monitored, including dozens of nurses and other hospital workers as well as passengers on airline flights that Ms Vinson took between Cleveland and Dallas before she was found to have Ebola. (NY Times)
