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NJ and NY!
Finally
New York, New Jersey to quarantine medical workers returning from West Africa
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By Mark Berman October 24 at 5:28 PM
Customs officers working during Ebola screenings at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York. (U.S. Customs and Border Protection)
Medical personnel returning to New York and New Jersey from the Ebola-riddled countries in West Africa will be automatically quarantined if they had direct contact with an infected person, officials announced Friday.
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) and New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R) announced the decision at a joint news conference Friday at 7 World Trade Center.
“The steps New York and New Jersey are taking today will strengthen our safeguards to protect our residents against this disease and help ensure those that may be infected by Ebola are treated with the highest precautions,” Cuomo said in a statement.
They said that public-health officials at John F. Kennedy and Newark Liberty international airports, where enhanced screening for Ebola is taking place, would make the determination on who would be quarantined. Anyone who had direct contact with an Ebola patient in Liberia, Sierra Leone or Guinea will be quarantined.
In addition, anyone who traveled there but had no such contact would be actively monitored and possibly quarantined, authorities said.
This news came a day after a doctor who had treated Ebola patients in Guinea was diagnosed in Manhattan, becoming the fourth person diagnosed with the virus in the United States and the first outside of Dallas.
And the decision came not long after a health-care worker who had treated Ebola patients arrived at Newark, one of five airports where people traveling from West Africa to the United States are encountering the stricter screening rules.
While the person had no symptoms, the New Jersey Department of Health will issue a legal quarantine order. The health-care worker, a woman who does not identified, does not live in the New York area, but she was planning on remaining in New York, according to Christie’s office.
Christie said the enhanced measures at the two airports would make sure that “any suspected cases are identified quickly and effectively, and that proper safeguards are executed.”
The quarantines outlined by the governors – which will last for the 21-day period when people infected with Ebola can become symptomatic — come amid calls for quarantining all medical workers who return to the United States from the Ebola-stricken parts of West Africa.
Federal authorities are considering a mandatory quarantine, but they have said that no decision has been made.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has determined that states have the right to determine their own protocols for Ebola screening and quarantine, Cuomo’s office said.
Finally
New York, New Jersey to quarantine medical workers returning from West Africa
Resize Text Print Article Comments
By Mark Berman October 24 at 5:28 PM
Customs officers working during Ebola screenings at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York. (U.S. Customs and Border Protection)
Medical personnel returning to New York and New Jersey from the Ebola-riddled countries in West Africa will be automatically quarantined if they had direct contact with an infected person, officials announced Friday.
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) and New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R) announced the decision at a joint news conference Friday at 7 World Trade Center.
“The steps New York and New Jersey are taking today will strengthen our safeguards to protect our residents against this disease and help ensure those that may be infected by Ebola are treated with the highest precautions,” Cuomo said in a statement.
They said that public-health officials at John F. Kennedy and Newark Liberty international airports, where enhanced screening for Ebola is taking place, would make the determination on who would be quarantined. Anyone who had direct contact with an Ebola patient in Liberia, Sierra Leone or Guinea will be quarantined.
In addition, anyone who traveled there but had no such contact would be actively monitored and possibly quarantined, authorities said.
This news came a day after a doctor who had treated Ebola patients in Guinea was diagnosed in Manhattan, becoming the fourth person diagnosed with the virus in the United States and the first outside of Dallas.
And the decision came not long after a health-care worker who had treated Ebola patients arrived at Newark, one of five airports where people traveling from West Africa to the United States are encountering the stricter screening rules.
While the person had no symptoms, the New Jersey Department of Health will issue a legal quarantine order. The health-care worker, a woman who does not identified, does not live in the New York area, but she was planning on remaining in New York, according to Christie’s office.
Christie said the enhanced measures at the two airports would make sure that “any suspected cases are identified quickly and effectively, and that proper safeguards are executed.”
The quarantines outlined by the governors – which will last for the 21-day period when people infected with Ebola can become symptomatic — come amid calls for quarantining all medical workers who return to the United States from the Ebola-stricken parts of West Africa.
Federal authorities are considering a mandatory quarantine, but they have said that no decision has been made.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has determined that states have the right to determine their own protocols for Ebola screening and quarantine, Cuomo’s office said.
