John F. Kennedy International Airport will begin screening passengers from Ebola-stricken areas for the virus after 11:59 p.m. Thursday, making it the fourth U.S. airport to conduct enhanced public health checks since the outbreak began.
For the past week, the United States has been rerouting travelers from the Democratic Republic of Congo, South Sudan and Uganda to select airports to receive enhanced public health screenings, an effort to identify people who may have been exposed to the Ebola virus. Such screenings are already being conducted at Washington Dulles International Airport, Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport and George Bush Intercontinental Airport in Houston.
In a news release Thursday, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said that Kennedy Airport had previously conducted such checks during other public health crises “and has established operational procedures in place.” All travelers coming to the United States from affected areas could be subject to screenings, regardless of immigration or citizenship status. U.S. Customs and Border Protection announced the screenings would be coming to J.F.K. Airport earlier this week.
The Ebola outbreak is estimated to have led to more than 1,000 cases already, as well as more than 200 deaths. Public health experts have said that the dismantling of the U.S. Agency for International Development last year left detection and response efforts flat-footed and underfunded, allowing the latest outbreak to spread rapidly.
The Trump administration has pledged to keep Ebola out of the United States at all costs, even denying entry to American citizens affected by it. Earlier on Thursday, senior administration officials unveiled plans for a 50-bed quarantine center in Kenya to house Americans who had been exposed to the Ebola virus, with adjacent isolation and biocontainment facilities to hold those who test positive or showed signs of illness while in quarantine. The quarantine facility is expected to launch on Friday; it was not clear when the isolation and biocontainment facilities would be operational.
The C.D.C. and State Department are still trying to identify enhanced treatment facilities in Europe to accept Americans who need advanced treatment for Ebola, the officials said.
The C.D.C. previously said that passengers who were in the D.R.C., South Sudan or Uganda during the past 21 days “are temporarily prohibited from entering the United States.”
Passengers subjected to enhanced screenings at Kennedy Airport and other airports could be asked to complete a questionnaire about their travel history and symptoms, have their temperature checked, and be observed for signs of illness, the C.D.C. stated earlier this month. Screened passengers who are allowed to enter the United States could still be asked to provide contact information for follow-up checks.
But public health screenings at airports and borders will likely not catch all travelers infected with Ebola. People often begin to show symptoms eight to 10 days after infection, and those early symptoms — fevers, sore throat, aches and pains — do not always stand out.
The C.D.C. said that the enhanced screening procedures at the selected airports were one component of what they called a “layered public health approach,” including exit screening, airline illness reporting and post-arrival health monitoring.
Joseph Goldstein contributed reporting.
