Ebola Screening Urged For Minn. Airport
ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) — Minnesota's governor and U.S. senators are asking the federal government to screen passengers for Ebola when they arrive at the Minneapolis airport.
Gov. Mark Dayton and Sens. Amy Klobuchar and Al Franken wrote to the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, asking that Minneapolis be added to the five international airports that began screening this past weekend.
Minneapolis-St. Paul is home to large numbers of immigrants from West Africa, the region hard-hit by Ebola.
The airport has no direct flights arriving from Africa. But Dayton, Klobuchar and Franken want screening for travelers whose flights originated in Liberia, Guinea or Sierra Leone. The screening would include a health declaration, information on where the traveler is staying and a visual exam by a medical professional including taking temperature.
Ebola screenings were announced last week for Kennedy Airport in New York, Newark Liberty in New Jersey, Washington Dulles, Chicago O'Hare and Hartsfield-Jackson in Atlanta. The airports collectively receive more than 90 percent of passengers from Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone.
"The Ebola experience in Dallas, Texas has taught us that even one case of Ebola in our state or country can have devastating consequences," Dayton, Klobuchar and Franken wrote in their letter to CDC director Tom Frieden. "Our request is that the CDC conduct heightened screenings of all passengers with Liberia, Sierra Leone, and Guinea in their travel history when they arrive at MSP...We hope to work with you to do everything we can to prevent the disease from spreading to Minnesota."
Patrick Hogan, a spokesman for the Minneapolis airport, told the Minneapolis Star Tribune that entrance screening "would add one more layer of protection against the disease."
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