JFK, Newark Liberty Airports To Increase Ebola Screening

John F. Kennedy and Newark Liberty International are two of five U.S. airports that will begin to taking the temperatures of travelers from West Africa as part of a stepped-up response to the Ebola epidemic. Passengers and crew on ships that arrive from West Africa and dock at the Port of New York will also have their temperatures taken and asked about their health and exposure history.

At the White House, spokesman Josh Earnest said the additional layer of screening will begin Saturday at JFK, and would be in place at Newark Liberty, as well as Chicago O'Hare, Washington Dulles and Atlanta's Hatfield-Jackson by next week.

Earnest said the five airports cover the destinations of 94 percent of the people who travel to the U.S. from the three heavily-hit countries in West Africa — Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea. He estimated that about 150 people would be checked each day under the new procedures.

U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer said 75 percent of travelers from West Africa to the U.S. come through JFK Airport. That amounts to more than 3,000 airline passengers per month, although Schumer said on Wednesday that those numbers have “declined greatly” in recent weeks. He couldn’t give exact figures. 

A Liberian man who had come to the U.S. with Ebola died Wednesday. Forty-two-year-old Thomas Eric Duncan, the first person diagnosed in the U.S. with the disease, had come to Dallas in late September, but did not display obvious signs of having Ebola when he entered the U.S.

Also on Wednesday, Homeland Security Deputy Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said Customs and Border Protection agents are handing out information sheets to travelers with details of what symptoms to look for and directions to call doctors if they become sick within 21 days — the incubation period for Ebola.

The fact sheet to be given to arriving travelers says: "You were given this card because you arrived to the United States from a country with Ebola." It tells passengers to "please watch your health for the next 21 days" and to "take your temperature every morning and evening, and watch for symptoms of Ebola," which are listed on the sheet.

Dr. Tom Frieden of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said this week that officials are looking at all options "to see what we can do to increase safety of all Americans."

Senator Schumer echoed Frieden’s reassuring tone. “There is certainly no reason to panic here in New York or anywhere else,” he said.