NEW YORK - The neighbouring US states of New York and New Jersey announced that anyone arriving at area airports that has had direct contact with Ebola patients will be quarantined. The stricter rules were announced Friday, shortly after a top US health official said the federal government also was considering tighter measures nationwide that may put anyone returning from Ebola zones into quarantine or under strict monitoring.
‘That is something that is right now under very active discussion, and you’ll be hearing shortly about what the guidelines will be,’ said Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, at an event in Bethesda, Maryland.
The new policy in New Jersey and New York goes beyond guidelines from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the governors - Anrew Cuomo of New York and Chris Christie of New Jersey - said at a news briefing at the World Trade Center complex in Manhattan.
Under the changes, quarantines for high-risk travelers from any of the three West African nations most affected by the Ebola outbreak would last 21 days. Others who travel from the region and haven’t had direct contact with virus patients will be actively monitored and quarantined only if necessary, they said.
The move, which followed Thursday’s diagnosis of Ebola in a New York City doctor who came home recently from Guinea, was put into effect immediately: a health-care worker returning from West Africa on Friday was stopped at Newark Liberty International Airport and put under quarantine order, Governor Christie said.
The unidentified woman, who worked with Doctors Without Borders and had treated Ebola patients in Africa, had no symptoms when she arrived, but later developed a fever, officials said. She was placed in isolation at Newark’s University Hospital, the New Jersey medical center designated as a treatment facility for potential Ebola patients.
The states’ quarantines mark a more aggressive tack than the Obama administration, which said Friday it was reviewing Ebola quarantine protocols while also reassuring the public that the risk of contracting the virus was still extremely low. A senior administration official said that prior to the states’ announcement, the administration had been looking carefully at policies pertaining to the return of health-care workers from West Africa. ‘In determining the right approach, we have put the health and safety of Americans first and foremost, and our deliberations have been informed by our most knowledgeable and experienced public health and Homeland Security professionals, ‘ the official said. ‘We want to strike the right balance of doing what is best to protect the public’s health while not impeding whatsoever our ability to combat the epidemic in West Africa, ‘ said Jennifer Routh, a National Institute of Health (NIH) spokeswoman, in an e-mailed statement.
In the New York area, John F Kennedy International and Newark-Liberty International airports receive international passengers. Cuomo and Christie, oversee the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which run the airports. Cuomo said the increased measures are necessary because current CDC guidelines don’t go far enough. Earlier, he cited Craig Spencer, the New York doctor diagnosed with Ebola yesterday, as an example for why the state needs to enforce stronger infection control measures.