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In a bid to curtail the spread of the Ebola virus to America, the United States will begin enhanced screening of travelers from West Africa arriving at five of the country's largest airports as it increases efforts to prevent the spread of a deadly Ebola outbreak, Reuters reports.
The enhanced screening will begin at the John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York on Saturday and shall be extended next week to Newark Liberty in New Jersey, Washington Dulles, Chicago O'Hare and Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta.
Combined, those airports receive more than 94 percent of travelers from Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone, the countries hardest hit by Ebola, with JFK accounting for nearly half of them, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said.
About 150 travelers from the West African countries arrive at the five airports each day, a tiny portion of the total number of international travelers at the five airports.
"The number of travelers is relatively small. We're talking about 150 per day, so it's not an effort that would be particularly disruptive to large numbers of people," CDC Director Dr. Thomas Frieden told a news conference in Atlanta. "We think it's manageable." he added.
The U.S. government has been under pressure from lawmakers to enhance screening and even ban flights from some West African countries since a Liberian national became first person diagnosed with Ebola on U.S. soil. Thomas Eric Duncan, who died on Wednesday, left Liberia last week and flew to Dulles and then traveled to Dallas.
#Ebola #Dallas #US
The enhanced screening will begin at the John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York on Saturday and shall be extended next week to Newark Liberty in New Jersey, Washington Dulles, Chicago O'Hare and Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta.
Combined, those airports receive more than 94 percent of travelers from Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone, the countries hardest hit by Ebola, with JFK accounting for nearly half of them, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said.
About 150 travelers from the West African countries arrive at the five airports each day, a tiny portion of the total number of international travelers at the five airports.
"The number of travelers is relatively small. We're talking about 150 per day, so it's not an effort that would be particularly disruptive to large numbers of people," CDC Director Dr. Thomas Frieden told a news conference in Atlanta. "We think it's manageable." he added.
The U.S. government has been under pressure from lawmakers to enhance screening and even ban flights from some West African countries since a Liberian national became first person diagnosed with Ebola on U.S. soil. Thomas Eric Duncan, who died on Wednesday, left Liberia last week and flew to Dulles and then traveled to Dallas.
#Ebola #Dallas #US
