Next week, the United States government will begin directing travelers from Guinea and the Democratic Republic of Congo to six American airports, according to the CDC. Airlines will collect information from all passengers who will board flights to the U.S. who have been in any of the countries for the past 21 days and share the data with CDC and local health departments for monitoring purposes.
The measures come at a time when the United States and other nations are struggling with the Covid-19 pandemic, with growing concern that variants may increase rates again. It also follows two previous Ebola outbreaks in Africa, which began in 2014 and 2018, resulting in the deaths of thousands.
The CDC noted that this year’s outbreaks occur in remote areas and the risk to the United States is extremely low. The agency said travel restrictions were being implemented due to excessive caution.
On Thursday, the World Health Organization reported that there were nine cases of Ebola and five deaths reported in Guinea, and eight cases and four deaths reported in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
The Red Cross said in a statement that a network of more than 700 trained volunteers was “activated as part of a first wave of response and the government asked people to respect hygiene and prevention measures and report the signs of the disease to health authorities. . “The World Health Organization has helped to control the recent outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo with vaccines and is helping to acquire doses for Guinea.