O'Hare named 1 of 5 US airports to receive travelers from Ebola-stricken countries
CHICAGO -- Chicago's O'Hare airport is one of five U.S. airports that will screen travelers from three West African countries dealing with an Ebola outbreak.
It's been five days since customs and health officials have been taking the temperatures of passengers arriving at O'Hare from Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone. Now, the Department of Homeland Security is taking its Ebola precautions one step further by imposing travel restrictions.
Passengers on flights originating from the three affected countries can only fly into five American airports - New York's Kennedy, Newark Liberty, Washington's Dulles, Chicago's O'Hare and Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta.
Chicago-area Liberians say they support the restrictions as long as they are temporary.
"It is OK for now to contain it, but not for long term. Because people need to get around in their own convenient ways," said Sedekie Sackor, president, The Organization of Liberian Community in Illinois.
According to an ABC News/Washington Post poll, 91 percent of people surveyed say they support stricter screening. A new study by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research says up to three Ebola-infected travelers might board an international flight each month from West Africa.
If there is a case in Illinois, four Chicago hospitals have agreed to treat patients, including University of Chicago Medical Center. Hospitals are not expecting any more patients because O'Hare is now a designated airport.
"Honestly, I would probably expect those flights to come to one of those five designated airports anyways, so , I think we're just going to need to wait and see how many patients are flagged with the screening process and what the volume and the capacity is like at that point of time," said Krista Curell, University of Chicago Medicine.
There are no direct flights to the United States from West Africa. About 94 percent of the roughly 150 people traveling daily from West Africa to the U.S. arrive at the one of the five airports. Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson said Tuesday that now everyone traveling from Liberia, Sierra Leone or Guinea will have to land in the U.S. at one of the five airports and then fly on to their destination.
The new requirement means that people traveling from the region who were not originally passing through one of those five airports will have to rebook their flights.
Johnson said DHS now has "measures to identify and screen anyone at all land, sea and air ports of entry into the United States who we have reason to believe has been present in Liberia, Sierra Leone or Guinea in the preceding 21 days."
Concerns about travelers infected with Ebola have risen since a Liberian man traveled from the region to Dallas last month. Thomas Eric Duncan became the first person in the United States diagnosed with Ebola, a few days after arriving from West Africa. He died on Oct. 8.
Since then, two nurses who helped care for him have also been diagnosed with Ebola.
Some members of Congress have urged President Barack Obama to ban all travel from West Africa. Tuesday, House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte, R-Va., praised the expansion of airport screening but again urged Obama to halt all travel from the region.
"President Obama has a real solution at his disposal under current law and can use it at any time to temporarily ban foreign nationals from entering the United States from Ebola-ravaged countries," Goodlatte said.
Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., described the move as an "added layer of protection against Ebola entering our country."
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
