Travelers flying to the U.S. from countries that have been linked to the recent deadly Ebola outbreak in Africa will only be allowed to arrive into one specific airport, the Department of Homeland Security has announced.
As of Thursday, all flights carrying passengers that have been in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Uganda, or South Sudan at any point during the previous 21 days will be diverted to Washington Dulles International Airport in Virginia.
The announcement was made by newly appointed DHS chief Markwayne Mullin, who stepped into the role in March following the firing of Kristi Noem.
The decision to reroute flights to IAD, where the U.S. government is focusing its resources “to implement enhanced public health measures,” was announced Thursday.
Earlier, an Air France flight was forced by U.S. border officials to divert to Canada after it was discovered that a passenger from the DRC was onboard.
While the passenger is a citizen of the DRC, it is unclear if they had been in the country within the past few weeks.
“Air France boarded a passenger from the Democratic Republic of Congo in error on a flight to the United States,” a CBP spokesperson told The Independent. “Due to entry restrictions put in place to reduce the risk of the Ebola virus, the passenger should not have boarded the plane.”
Ebola, a deadly infection that spreads person-to-person through bodily fluids, damages blood vessels, which can lead to life-threatening symptoms such as excessive bleeding, vomiting, organ failure and more.
Since the outbreak was first identified there have been about 600 reported cases of the virus in the DRC so far, resulting in 139 deaths, according to World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Ghebreyesus.
Speaking Tuesday Ghebreyesus said he was “deeply concerned” about the scale and speed of the outbreak, and also noted that the virus appears to have been spreading for some time before it was caught by health officials.
However, he added that the virus remains a public health emergency of international concern, but not a pandemic emergency.
On Wednesday the White House denied it had delayed the evacuation of an American doctor who contracted Ebola in the DRC, after a report claimed officials were reluctant to bring him back to the U.S.
After Dr. Peter Stafford, an American physician working in the DRC with a nonprofit Christian ministry, tested positive for Ebola, officials from the CDC and Administration for Strategic Preparedness and Response reportedly advocated to send him to a facility in the U.S. with special biocontainment units.
However, White House officials allegedly said they did not want Stafford back in the United States, the Washington Post reported. Ultimately, Stafford was flown to Germany, where he is receiving care at Berlin’s Charite University Hospital. White House Spokesperson Kush Desai called the Post’s report “absolutely false” and said Stafford was flown to Germany because it’s 12 hours closer to the DRC than the United States and “time is of the essence.”
