First U.S. airport begins enhanced Ebola entry screenings

First U.S. airport begins enhanced Ebola entry screenings
(Image credit: AP Photo/Boris Grdanoski)

New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport began screening passengers who had traveled from or through Liberia, Sierra Leone, or Guinea for signs of the Ebola virus on Saturday, The Associated Press reports.

Still, "no matter how many procedures are put into place, we can't get the risk to zero," Dr. Martin Cetron, director of the Division of Global Migration and Quarantine for the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention, said.

Customs and health officials are using no-touch thermometers to take arriving travelers' temperatures. Those who are found to have a fever will be interviewed further to determine whether they may have come in contact with a person infected with the Ebola virus. If necessary, travelers can be subsequently quarantined. The same screening measures will go into effect at four other U.S. airports later this week, notes AP: New Jersey's Newark Liberty, Washington Dulles, Chicago O'Hare and Atlanta's Hartsfield-Jackson.

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE
https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/jacafc5zvs1692883516.jpg

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

Continue reading for free

We hope you're enjoying The Week's refreshingly open-minded journalism.

Subscribed to The Week? Register your account with the same email as your subscription.

Sarah Eberspacher

Sarah Eberspacher is an associate editor at TheWeek.com. She has previously worked as a sports reporter at The Livingston County Daily Press & Argus and The Arizona Republic. She graduated from Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism.