NEW YORK — Customs and health officials began taking the temperatures of passengers arriving at New York’s Kennedy International Airport from three West African countries Saturday in a stepped-up screening effort meant to prevent the spread of the Ebola virus.
Federal health officials said the entry screenings, which will expand to four additional U.S. airports in the next week, add another layer of protection to halt the spread of a disease that has killed more than 4,000 people worldwide.
“Already there are 100 percent of the travelers leaving the three infected countries being screened on exit. Sometimes multiple times temperatures are checked along that process,” said Dr. Martin Cetron, director of the Division of Global Migration and Quarantine for the national Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Cetron added, “No matter how many procedures are put into place, we can’t get the risk to zero.”
The screening will be expanded over the next week to New Jersey’s Newark Liberty, Washington Dulles, Chicago O’Hare and Hartsfield-Jackson in Atlanta.
Customs officials say about 150 people travel daily from or through Liberia, Sierra Leone or Guinea to the United States, and nearly 95 percent of them land first at one of the five airports.
Passengers arriving at Kennedy said the screening was orderly. “They asked us a few questions, if we had been sick in the past few days,” said Johnson Nellon, 14, who flew from Liberia with his 17-year-old brother.
Public health workers use no-touch thermometers to take the temperatures. Those who have a fever will be interviewed to determine whether they might have had contact with someone infected with Ebola. There are quarantine areas at each of the five airports that can be used if necessary.
There are no direct flights to the U.S. from the three countries, but Homeland Security officials said last week they can track passengers to where their trips began, even if they make several stops. Airlines from Morocco, France and Belgium are still flying in and out of West Africa.
