New York, New Jersey Order Ebola Quarantines
TEHRAN (Tasnim) - Alarmed by the case of an Ebola-infected New York doctor, the governors of New Jersey and New York ordered a mandatory, 21-day quarantine for all travelers who have had contact with the disease in West Africa.
The move came after a New York City physician who returned to the US a week ago from treating Ebola patients in Guinea fell ill with the virus. Many New Yorkers were dismayed to learn that after he came home, Dr. Craig Spencer rode the subway, took a cab, went bowling, visited a coffee shop and ate at a restaurant in the city of eight million.
New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said the case led them to conclude that the two states need precautions more rigorous than those of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which recommends monitoring of exposed people for 21 days but doesn’t require quarantine, in which they are kept away from others.
“It’s too serious a situation to leave it to the honor system of compliance,” Cuomo said.
Those who are forcibly quarantined will be confined either to their homes or, if they live in other states, to some other place, most likely a medical facility, the governors said. Those quarantined at home will receive house calls from health officials. Twenty-one days is the incubation period for the Ebola virus, France24 reported.
Dr. Howard Zucker, acting New York state health commissioner, said any medical personnel who have treated Ebola patients in the three Ebola-ravaged West African countries— Sierra Leone, Guinea and Liberia— will be automatically quarantined.
Cuomo said anyone arriving from the three countries will be questioned at the airport about their contact with Ebola patients.
The two governors gave no estimate of how many travelers would be subject to quarantine, but Cuomo said “we’re not talking about a tremendous volume of people coming in from these areas,” and added that there are no plans to hire more screeners at airports.
