http://thehill.com/policy/healthcare/221524-cdc-announces-21-day-monitoring-for-west-african-travelersBy Sarah Ferris - 10/22/14 11:47 AM EDT
All travelers who arrive in the United States from Ebola-stricken countries will be closely watched by public health officials starting Monday, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) announced Wednesday.
Dr. Tom Frieden, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), said that anyone arriving from the three countries — Sierra Leone, Guinea and Liberia — will be actively monitored on a daily basis starting Monday.
They will also face new rules about where they can travel within the United States, and must coordinate with health agencies in other states to ensure they continue to be monitored.
"These new measures I'm announcing today will give additonal levels of safety so that people who develop symptoms of Ebola are isolated quickly," Frieden told reporters during a press briefing.
The restrictions will go into place for 21 days after the person arrives in the United States, which covers the disease's incubation period.
He added that about 70 percent of all travelers stay in six states: New York, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia, New Jersey and Georgia.
If a traveler doesn't report in, Frieden said state or local public health officials will take "immediate steps to find the person and make sure active monitoring continues." About 150 people from the affected areas in West Africa enter the United States each day.
He said that state and local health departments have the authority to "require participation" in the monitoring because it is meant to protect the public from the deadly disease.
States will have leeway in how they enforce the rules, Freiden said. Each traveler will have to comply with the rules that have been deemed "acceptable to the health department of that jurisdiction," he said.
"The bottom line is that we have to keep up our guard against Ebola," he said.
