Next week, the U.S. government will begin directing passengers from Guinea and the Democratic Republic of Congo to six U.S. airports, according to the CDC. Airlines will collect information from all passengers who have flown to the U.S. who were in each country within the previous 21 days, and share the data with the CDC and local health departments for monitoring purposes.
The measures come as the U.S. and other countries embark on a Covid-19 pandemic, with growing concern that fluctuations could trigger spike levels. It also follows two previous outbreaks of Ebola in Africa that began in 2014 and 2018, resulting in thousands of deaths.
The CDC noted that there is an outbreak this year in remote areas and that the risk to the U.S. is very low. The group said the travel restrictions were being enforced out of sufficient warning.
On Thursday, the World Health Organization reported that nine cases of Ebola and five deaths were reported in Guinea, and eight cases and four deaths were reported in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
The Red Cross said in a statement that a network of more than 700 trained volunteers had been “deployed as part of a first wave of response and the government has urged people to respect hygiene and prevention measures. and to report signs of the disease to the health of authorities. “The World Health Organization has helped control recent developments in the Democratic Republic of the Congo with vaccines and is helping to get doses for Guinea.