ATLANTA — The State Department announced Thursday that anyone flying into the United States from Uganda will now be funneled through five airports, including Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, so they can be screened for Ebola.
The move comes after there was an outbreak of the virus in the country. The new guidelines impact anybody who has been in Uganda over the last 21 days and is flying back into the U.S.
“To date in this outbreak, cases have only been confirmed in Uganda and no suspected, probable, or confirmed cases of Ebola have been reported in the United States, and the risk of Ebola domestically is currently low,” the State Department said Thursday.
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In addition to Hartsfield-Jackson, all people flying in from Uganda will now be funneled through New York’s John F. Kennedy International, Newark Liberty International, Chicago O’Hare International and Washington Dulles International airports.
The new screening requirement goes into effect at midnight.
This is not the first time that Hartsfield-Jackson International has had to screen for the virus. In 2014, the airport screened passengers arriving from several African countries after a large Ebola outbreak that occurred then.
During that outbreak, Emory University Hospital was one of a handful of hospitals in the US that treated several patients that had contracted the virus -- and survived.
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