U.S. restricts entrance of people from Ebola-stricken West Africa to five airports

Travelers to the United States from Ebola-stricken Liberia, Sierra Leone or Guinea must fly into one of five airports that have enhanced screening in place for the virus, the U.S. government said on Tuesday. The restrictions on passengers whose trips originated in those three West African countries were announced by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and were set to go into effect on Wednesday. The measures stop well short of the travel ban sought by some U.S. lawmakers in a bid to prevent further Ebola cases in the United States. Affected travelers will have their temperatures checked for signs of a fever that may indicate Ebola infection, among other protocols, at New York’s John F. Kennedy, New Jersey’s Newark, Washington Dulles, Atlanta and Chicago’s O’Hare international airports, officials said.

The president stands ready to consider additional travel restrictions as necessary.

Josh Earnest, White House spokesman

These airports account for 94 per cent of passengers coming to the United States from the Ebola-hit countries. The restrictions apply to all travelers, including U.S. citizens and those who would have arrived by land or sea. The restrictions apply to about nine people per day arriving from those nations that do not already fly into the enhanced-screening airports, according to Jean Medina, a spokeswoman for Washington-based trade group Airlines for America, or A4A. “A4A members are cooperating fully with U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) to reroute the six percent” who do not fly to the five airports, Medina said in an emailed statement.

Americas