The United States announced that it will restrict, starting this Monday, May 18, the entry of travelers from Uganda, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and South Sudan, due to the new outbreak of the Ebola virus.
Specifically, the US will temporarily suspend the entry into the country of people who do not have a US passport and who are traveling from those three countries or have passed through them in the last 21 days, according to Satish Pillai, an official with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC, in English) in a call with reporters.
The restriction, issued in an order invoking Title 42 of the public health law, will be in effect for 30 days, according to the document published by the CDC. U.S. military personnel, diplomatic personnel and their family members — partners and children — are exempt from the ban.
The goal, the letter details, is “to reduce the risk of the Ebola virus entering the United States.” and facilitate a risk assessment on the outbreak.
To implement this guideline, the country’s health authorities are coordinating with foreign and national airlines, as well as with officials at ports of entry, to “identify” passengers who could have been exposed to Ebola, Pillai explained.
In turn, the CDC is strengthening response activities for health protection at ports, contact tracing, laboratory testing capacity and hospital preparedness throughout the country, the official added.
However, Pillai stressed that at this time, the risk to Americans from Ebola is “low.”
The outbreak has caused 88 deaths in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, according to the World Health Organization.
The virus began to circulate at the end of April and, so far, is concentrated in the health zones of Mongwalu and Rwampara, characterized by intense population movement and its proximity to Uganda and South Sudan.
Outside the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Uganda has confirmed two cases in Kampala – including one death – and South Sudan, one case in Western Equatoria state, near the Congolese border.
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